35 years since the fall of the Wall: half a million people celebrated in Berlin

Berlin, 11 November 2024 The 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall brought people from all over the world together in Berlin, the city of freedom. More than half a million guests gathered to celebrate a festival of freedom together. The images went around the world: visitBerlin reached more than four million people worldwide via social media communication with information and live coverage of the celebrations to mark the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Using the hashtags #visitberlin and #mauerfall35, visitBerlin provided comprehensive information about the highlights of the event in Berlin on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn. The German capital celebrated the memory of the historic 9 November 1989 with a multifaceted programme at the former sites of the Wall and along the former border.

‘The celebration of freedom has reached the hearts of the people,’ explained Burkhard Kieker, Managing Director of visitBerlin. ‘Berlin is the city of freedom and remembrance - the anniversary and the many guests from Germany and abroad have shown that it has global appeal.’

A highlight of the celebrations was the four-kilometre-long open-air presentation of over 5,000 posters along the former course of the Wall, which told stories of freedom from 1989 to the present day. Impressive music performances, workshops and exhibitions also took place, including the democracy festival ‘Revolution! - and then?’ at the Campus for Democracy. Visitors and Berliners were invited to immerse themselves in the moving history of the city and commemorate the peaceful revolution. 

In addition, visitBerlin had invited important personalities to the city who are committed to freedom and democracy worldwide. These include the Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the Iranian women's rights activist Masih Alinejad and the Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López.