Berlin Wall 25th Anniversary: 25 Stunning Images Show City Before And After

25 Extraordinary Images That Show How Far Berlin Has Come In 25 Years

As the world marks 25 years since the Berlin Wall fell, these striking images show how much has changed in a city once divided in two.

On November 9, 1989, the people of East and West Berlin brought down the wall and reunited a city that has been divided politically since 1945, and divided physically by the wall since 1961.

The fall of the wall was part of the wider collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. It was followed by the reunification of West and East Germany on October 3, 1990.

In the quarter century since it came down, the German capital has grown and changed rapidly and the places where the wall stood have regenerated into remarkable, thriving spaces, which sometimes show no sign of what they used to look like.

These 25 images remind us how far Berlin, and Germany, has come.

The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin with people dancing on the Berlin Wall on November 10, 1989 and then 25 years after in October 2014. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle, Markus Schreiber)

US President John F Kennedy looking across the Berlin Wall into East Germany during his visit on June 26, 1963 and the area of former Checkpoint Charlie on September 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

The Berlin Wall along Bernauer Strasse in the north of Berlin with graffiti saying 'The wall must fall' on March 8, 1973 and a part of the Wall Remembrance Monument at the same spot on October 21, 2014 (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

A composite of two photos taken 53 years apart. In the colour photo traffic, cyclists and a horse-drawn carriage carrying tourists make their way across the intersection of Friedrichstrasse and Zimmerstrasse at former Checkpoint Charlie on April 1, 2014. In the black and white photo Soviet tanks (behind) and U.S. tanks confront one another at the same location on October 26, 1961. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

The Berlin Wall checkpoint at Heinrich-Heine-Strasse on March 12, 1971 and people walking and cycling at the area of former checkpoint at district Kreuzberg in Berlin on October 1, 2014. (AP Photos/Edwin Reichert, Markus Schreiber)

US President John F Kennedy walking past a cordon of saluting servicemen and the sentry post of Checkpoint Charlie on June 26, 1963 and actors wearing uniforms at the area of former Checkpoint Charlie, with a rebuilt checkpoint as tourist attraction on September 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Construction work at the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1985 on Friedrichstrasse near checkpoint Charlie and the same location on October 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

A view of East Berlin, taken from an observation platform in Bernauer Strasse, West Berlin, in 1980 and trams crossing the same area on October 1, 2014 (AP Photo/Elke Bruhn Hoffman, Markus Schreiber)

East Berlin citizens crowding the new passage at Bernauer Strasse where East German border police tore down segments of the wall on November 11, 1989 and people walking at the crossing Bernauer Strasse and Oderberger Strasse on October 26, 2014. (AP Photos/Rudi Blaha, Markus Schreiber)

US President Richard Nixon looking across the communist wall into East Germany during his stay in the divided city on February 27, 1969 and the area of the former Berlin Wall at the Checkpoint Heinrich-Heine-Strasse on September 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

The black and white image shows The Berlin Wall around the Brandenburg Gate in November 1961 and the colour image shows cars and busses passing by on October 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

In colour, a man walks past the underground subway entrance at Potsdamer Platz on February 25, 2014. In black and white, French soldiers and other people peer over the newly-erected Berlin Wall at the same location sometime in 1961. (Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive via Getty Images)

A young woman looks from the window of a youth hostel in Bernauer Strasse on February 24, 2014. In black and white, a woman in East Berlin looks out from an apartment window behind the newly-erected Berlin Wall at the same location sometime in 1961 or 1962. (Photo by Imagno/Hulton Archive via Getty Images)

In black and white, West Berliners wave to relatives in East Berlin one year after the Berlin Wall was erected at Bernauer Strasse on August 13, 1962. In colour, people crossing the same area on October 26, 2014 (AP Photo/Werner Kreusch, Markus Schreiber)

The Berlin Wall at the empty Potsdamer Platz in August 1962 and cars and buses driving there on September 25, 2014 (AP Photos/Edwin Reichtert, Markus Schreiber)

The black and white shows East German policemen in work dress as they remove barbed wire from a brick wall, while other policemen in background are raising the wall to 15 feet at the border between the French and Russian sector at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin on September 9, 1961. The colour shows the same place on October 21, 2014 (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

In colour, tourists and tourist buses pass by the Brandenburg Gate on April 3, 2014. In black and white, a sign reads: "Attention! You are NOW leaving West Berlin!" across from the Berlin Wall at the same location on August 1, 1962. (Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive via Getty Images)

Young visitors from Russia pose for a photo with an actor dressed as a U.S. soldier at the former Checkpoint Charlie border crossing between West and East Berlin on February 26, 2014. In black and white, U.S. soldiers peer from behind sandbags at Soviet soldiers at the same location on December 4, 1961. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

East Germans erecting the wall in front of the Reichstag building on November 20, 1961. The colour shows the same place on September 25, 2014 (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Children playing at the Berlin Wall at Sebastianstrasse near Heinrich-Heine-Strasse in 1968 and a man walking over the once divided space on November 3, 2014 (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

In colour, a young couple cross the street near the Berlin Wall memorial at Bernauer Strasse on February 25, 2014. In black and white, people in West Berlin look at the newly-erected Berlin Wall at the same location sometime in 1961 or 1962. (Photo by Imagno/Hulton Archive via Getty Images)

"Tear down this wall!" US President Ronald Reagan speaks at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987 and and image taken from the other side of the wall looking toward where the US president was standing

Berlin in the 1960s and Berlin now in 2014 where a man walks a dog past the memorial to the Church of Reconciliation, which was demolished by East Berlin authorities to make way for a widening of the Berlin Wall, in Bernauer Strasse on February 25, 2014. In the black and white photo people in West Berlin look at an early version of the Berlin Wall in front of the church at the same location sometime in 1961 or 1962. (Photo by Imagno/Hulton Archive via Getty Images)

A child plays at the Berlin Wall in July 1981 and cars park at the same spot in Berlin's Kreuzberg district on Oct. 2, 2014 - 25 years after the fall of the wall (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

This 1980 file photo shows a woman looking at the Berlin Wall along the Spree River in central Berlin in 1980. In background is the construction side of the Charite hospital. (AP Photo/Elke Bruhn Hoffmann)

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