4:3
AP Television
Berlin, Germany - November 9, 1989
1. Wide of piece of wall being lifted by mechanical digger
2. Chunk of wall coming down
16:9
AP Television
Berlin - 25 October 2014
3. Wide of Harald Jaeger, the East German colonel in charge of the Bornholmerstrasse border crossing on November 9, 1989 walking along the wall by Bornholmerstrasse
4. Tilt from memorial sign at Bornholmerstrasse to Jager
5. Wide of Jaeger
6. Close of Jaeger
7. SOUNDBITE: (German) Harald Jaeger, former Lt. colonel in charge of the Bornholmerstrasse border crossing on November 9, 1989:
"I tried to get some sort of instruction from a superior but they did not know what to do. They did not believe what was happening at Bornholmerstrasse. It was unimaginable for that military leadership at the time but also for the political leadership, the government. It was unimaginable that around 20,000 GDR citizens were at the border crossing. I tried to get a directive from a superior so I could start letting the GDR citizens through but there was simply no superiors around this night. So I had to act myself and gave the order myself that the wall should be opened."
8. Wide of photo near wall from November 9, 1989 at the Bornholmerstrasse crossing (PHOTO: Wolfgang Sunderhauft)
9. Close of photo from November 9, 1989 at the Bornholmerstrasse crossing (PHOTO: Wolfgang Sunderhauft)
10. Jager looking at photo
11. SOUNDBITE: (German), Harald Jaeger, former colonel in charge of the Bornholmerstrasse border crossing on November 9, 1989
"I have since described it as a horrible situation for us. But when the GDR citizens in euphoria started to run in the direction of West Berlin, cheering with bottles of Champagne and other things, then we were also happy. Happy because it had all happened without weapons and violence, that no drop of blood had been spilt in this night, only tears of joy and a bit of cold sweat running down my back."
12. Various of Jager looking at photograph
13. Wide of wall with street sign reading: (German) "Square of the 9th of November 1989"
14. Close of street sign
15. SOUNDBITE: (German), Harald Jaeger, former colonel in charge of the Bornholmer strasse border crossing on November 9, 1989
"When I look back, this night caused me personal and financial problems. But one person� I mean, I'm happy to give that. The more important things are the greater good for the majority of the German people and what they gained. And I think it is clear that they did gain."
16. Jager walking away along wall
4:3
AP Television
Berlin, Germany - November 9, 1989
17. Close of Checkpoint Charlie, pan to crowds gathering
18. Close of woman crossing, and hugging man behind her
19. Close of guard
20. Mid of guard, zoom out to people at Checkpoint Charlie
16:9
AP Television
Berlin - 29 October 2014
21. Wide of Checkpoint Charlie in central Berlin
22. Close of actors posing as American soldiers
23. Close of sign for checkpoint
4:3
AP Television
West Berlin, Germany - June 1961
24. Various of people escaping through barbed wire
25. Various of people escaping jumping from buildings
16:9
AP Television
Berlin - 29 October 2014
26. Wide of the former Stasi prison, now memorial, Hohenschonhausen
27. Cliewe Juritza, former Stasi prisoner after attempting to escape to West, walking along prison corridor, opens cell door, tracking shot to wide of prison cell
28. Juritza sitting in interrogation room
29. Close of Juritza
30. Wide of interrogation room with Juritza at back
31. SOUNDBITE: (German), Cliewe Juritza, former Stasi prisoner after attempting to escape to West
"I could simply not imagine spending the rest of my life in this walled-in country. You have to remember that no one foresaw the fall of the wall. No one foresaw the reunification of Germany. We were set with two countries."
32. Wide of Juritza in interrogation room
33. Prison cell door closes
34. SOUNDBITE: (German), Cliewe Juritza, former Stasi prisoner after attempting to escape to West
"I was arrested and sentenced because I wanted to get to West Germany. And exactly that is what I got in the end. I was punished for something that I got in the end."
AP Television
Berlin - 31 October 2014
35. Tilt along marking on street showing where wall stood to remnants of Berlin Wall at "Topography of Terror" exhibition in central Berlin
36. Various wide of Berlin Wall
37. Close of Berlin Wall
38. Interior of DDR Museum in Berlin, collection manager Soren Marotz walks in to exhibition showing living room in DDR, sits down on sofa
39. Wide of Marotz watching television in DDR exhibition space
40. SOUNDBITE: (German), Soren Marotz, DDR Museum collection manager
"After we had waited for about one hour in the cold the crowd started surging forward and everyone started running towards the checkpoint. Naturally I ran with like everyone else. And the border crossing was simply overran."
41. Wide of people looking at exhibition in DDR museum
42. Close of television in DDR museum showing former East German Leader Erich Honecker
43. SOUNDBITE: (German), Soren Marotz, DDR Museum collection manager
"You have to look at what Ostalgie (Nostalgia for East Germany) really is. My impression is that is certain form of longing for predictability. The world is much faster now and much more unpredictable. You don't have the security that you think you had in the GDR. So people look back at a level of predictability."
44. Wide of Berlin Wall
45. Close of Berlin Wall
LEADIN:
The Berlin Wall divided the German Capital for 28 years.
Now, 25 years after the fall of the Wall, Berliners share their stories of the East German state, living with the wall and the night when the wall fell.
Almost 25 years ago, the wall that divided East and West Berlin came down.
This is one of a few bits of the original Berlin Wall that is still standing in the German capital.
But this area of the wall has extra significance because of what happened here 25 years ago.
This was the site of the Bornholmerstrasse (Bornholmer street) border crossing; one of several crossings along the wall.
Normally the heavily guarded border crossing would work with very clear directives from superiors in the Stasi, the military and the political committees.
But in the night of November 9, 1989, confusion reigned.
Earlier in the evening, East German politburo member Gunter Schabowski had held his regular press conference.
After months of unrest in the country, a decision had been made to allow East German citizens to cross in to the West as long as they had special permission.
The order would take effect in the coming days.
But Schabowski was unclear about the details of the new directive.
So when asked when it would take place he simply said "immediately."
Once the press conference was shown on the television news, East Germans started to gather at the border crossings around Berlin to demand that they would be allowed to cross in to the West.
Harald Jaeger was the colonel in charge of the Bornholmerstrasse crossing.
By the early evening thousands of people had gathered in front of his crossing.
He started calling his superiors to get instructions of how to handle the situation, but he could not get a clear answer.
In the end he took a decision himself.
"I tried to get some sort of instruction from a superior but they did not know what to do. They did not believe what was happening at Bornholmerstrasse. It was unimaginable for that military leadership at the time but also for the political leadership, the government. It was unimaginable that around 20,000 GDR citizens were at the border crossing. I tried to get a directive from a superior so I could start letting the GDR citizens through but there was simply no superiors around this night. So I had to act myself and give the order myself that the wall should be opened."
Figures are difficult to verify, but according to most estimates, some 20,000 people crossed over the Bosebruck in to West Berlin at the Bornholmerstrasse crossing that night.
Other border crossings soon followed suit and the fall of the wall became inevitable.
Jaeger was himself no dissident or rebel.
He had served as a border guard loyally for 25 years, always following the rules and protocols.
It was not an easy decision to throw all of that away.
At the start of the evening the border guards tried to maintain some order, they stamped the passports of those leaving as invalid, meaning they would not be able to return.
But soon that also became impossible and Jaeger ordered the guards to simply open the gates.
"I have since described it as a horrible situation for us," he says
"But when the GDR citizens in euphoria started run in the direction of West Berlin, cheering with bottles of Champagne and other things, then we were also happy. Happy because it had all happened without weapons and violence, that no drop of blood had been spilt in this night, only tears of joy and a bit of cold sweat running down my back."
The fall of the Berlin wall set Germany on the path of reunification.
On October 3, 1990 the country was united and Berlin was officially one city again.
But for Jaeger reunification meant the end of his career and years of financial hardship.
He became unemployed for two years, and then started selling newspapers for a living.
Like many East Germans he struggled to come to terms with the new capitalist Germany.
But now, 25 years later, he says that the fall of the wall and the reunification of Germany was undoubtedly the best outcome for the people of Germany.
"When I look back, this night caused me personal and financial problems. But one person� I mean, I'm happy to give that. The more important things are the greater good for the majority of the German people what they gained. And I think it is clear that they did gain," he says.
The Wall divided the capital for 28 years, on 9 November people queued across Berlin to cross through the checkpoints to travel to the West.
Checkpoint Charlie was perhaps the most famous crossing into the US-controlled zone in Berlin.
Nowadays actors guard the Checkpoint for tourists. A poignant reminder of the past.
Over the years thousands of East Germans dissented and tried to escape through the barbed wire temporary fence, or by jumping out of the windows into West Berlin below.
According to the Germany Federal Commission dealing with the documents and records of the former East German State, at least 136 people died trying to cross the Berlin wall between 1961 and 1989.
Thousands others died or were imprisoned after failed attempts to escape to the west at other locations, such as by boat or through other communist states.
Others were imprisoned for dissent, protest and fighting against the regime.
Many ended up here, at the Hohenschonhausen Stasi prison in Berlin.
Between 1951 and 1989 thousands of prisoners were interrogated and held in the small cells at the prison.
Today it is museum and memorial.
Cliewe Juritza spent 10 months in four different prisons in East Germany for a failed attempt to escape to the West.
For him escaping was a personal quest.
He always wanted to join the East German merchant navy, but because he had a grandmother living in the West he was considered unsuitable and was rejected.
That is when he decided to escape:
"I could simply not imagine spending the rest of my life in this walled-in country. You have to remember that no one foresaw the fall of the wall. No one foresaw the reunification of Germany. We were set with two countries," he says.
He first tried to escape through Hungary but raised the suspicion of the Hungarian police and was sent back.
In 1984 he then tried to cross the border within Germany, but was caught and sent to prison.
After ten months of imprisonment he was sent to West Germany under a programme where the West German government would pay the Stasi to secure the release of dissident prisoners.
The irony is not lost on Juritza.
"I was arrested and sentenced because I wanted to get to West Germany. And exactly that is what I got in the end. I was punished for something that I got in the end."
Today the Berlin Wall is a tourist attraction.
Thousands of people visit what is left of the Wall every day.
But when Soren Marotz grew up in East Berlin it was far from an attraction.
He was 16-years-old on November 9, 1989, and he was certain the wall would stand there for his whole life.
But when he woke up on November 10 and heard that thousands of people had crossed in to the West he went to the closest border crossing to his school, the Henrich-Heine crossing in Kreuzberg.
At that time the guards at that crossing had regained some order, asking people for their passports and documents before they crossed.
But suddenly the crowd had enough of waiting.
"After we had waited for about one hour in the cold the crowd started surging forward and everyone started running towards the checkpoint. Naturally I ran with like everyone else. And the border crossing was simply overran," he says.
For Marotz life changed that day.
He became a part of the new unified Germany.
He studied in the West and worked in the West.
But in the end, his old life as a East German citizen caught up with him, albeit in a positive way.
He is now the collections manager at the DDR museum that shows what life was like in the East.
Each year over half a million people visit the Museum to learn about everything from the mundane of life in the East to how the political system worked and how the regime eventually crumbled.
Many of the visitors are East Germans, and some come with a certain level of nostalgia for the East German state, according to Marotz.
This so-called "Ostalgie" is understandable according to Marotz, eventhough that it doesn't necessarily mean that people want to return to the past.
"You have to look at what Ostalgie (Nostalgia for East Germany) really is. My impression is that is certain form of longing for predictability. The world is much faster now and much more unpredictable. You don't have the security that you think you had in the GDR. So people look back at a level of predictability," he says.
The fall of the Berlin wall will be celebrated on November 9 in Berlin, culminating ion a ceremony where 8,000 helium balloons will be released at around 18:00 GMT.
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