Built in 1961, the wall divided the former German capital for almost three decades and came to symbolize the ‘Iron Curtain’ between East and West. It encircled the democratic enclave of West Berlin, its guarded watchtowers a stark reminder of the continent’s post-war political division.

An enduring icon of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall was torn down by Berliners of both sides following dramatic scenes throughout Central and Eastern Europe as the communist system went through its death throes.

On November 9, 1989, the authorities of East Germany, which was under de facto Soviet control, opened its borders to the West after weeks of peaceful mass protests. After half a million people gathered to demonstrate in East Berlin, the authorities relaxed border controls. The unplanned result was a human tsunami.

Berliners set about the wall with pickaxes and sledgehammers, some tearing at the concrete structure with their bare hands. Momentous images beamed around the world showed family members reunited after decades of forced separation as people streamed from East to West Berlin.

But the wall’s collapse was no isolated event. It was the culmination of a domino effect across the Warsaw Pact countries that started with partially free elections in Poland. The pro-democracy opposition led by Lech Wałęsa, leader of the Solidarność (Solidarity) trade union, had won seats in parliament in the summer. The knock-on effects of the Polish movement were felt from the Baltic to Romania as a revolutionary fervor gathered momentum and people took to the streets to demand freedom.

The crest of this wave was the collapse of the Berlin Wall, which led to the reunification of Germany and the re-instatement of Berlin as the capital. It would not be until 1991 that the USSR itself finally collapsed, but by then the countries of Central Europe had already turned the page of history.

History repeats itself?

As Berliners celebrated the anniversary on Saturday under the banner ‘Preserve Freedom!’, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose coalition government is going through death throes of its own, cautioned that the ideals that underpinned the city’s liberation “are not something we can take for granted.”

“A look at our history and at the world around us shows this," he said.

As Scholz spoke, not only was his country slipping into political turmoil, but war raged in Ukraine and European leaders frantically sought to find focus in the wake of Donald Trump’s return to power across the Atlantic. Meanwhile, the people of Belarus continued their struggle for a ‘1989 moment’ of their own.

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who attended Berlin’s anniversary celebrations, told Euronews her compatriots are striving for their own political wall to crumble.

“For Belarusians, the Berlin Wall has a very important symbolic meaning,” she told the news service. “This is what Belarusians, to some extent, experience at the moment.

"The wall divided East Berlin from West Berlin, a better life from a worse life,” she continued. “What was a physical wall (in Berlin), is now a political wall in Belarus.

"I am certain that the wall in Belarus will collapse. Of course, it depends on us Belarusians, but also on global solidarity.

"We can't destroy this political wall all by ourselves. We need allies. We need solidarity. We need assistance."