After the end of World War II, the Allies took over the fallen city of Berlin—with the US, UK, and France administering control over what would become part of West Germany in 1949 and the USSR taking control of the East. That division was crystallized with the building of a wall dividing the former capital in 1961. In 1989, exactly 25 years ago today, the Berlin Wall finally fell.
The city has marked it with a beautiful temporary art installation called “Lichtgrenze,” which started on Friday 5pm local time and will end on Sunday at 7pm. Developed by Christopher Bauder and Marc Bauder, the city is putting 8,000 luminous balloons along the length of what was the Berlin Wall—from Bornholmer Strasse to Mauerpark and the Berlin Wall Memorial, past the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie.
All in all, the installation runs for 15km (9.3 miles) and reminds everyone just how divided the city was only a generation ago:
Up close, “Lichtgrenze“—or “Border of Light“—is stunning.
But the show really comes alive when the balloons light up the remaining parts of the wall.
