Berlin Then & Now
A city transformed by the single most dramatic moment in modern European history
In the summer of 1989, a young couple on their honeymoon photographed Berlin as it was: a city still divided by the Wall that had split it since 1961, running 155 kilometers through streets, backyards, and waterways. The eastern side was state-controlled and visibly austere, the western side an isolated enclave of Western life surrounded on all sides by the German Democratic Republic. Those honeymoon photographs, taken just six months before everything changed, turned out to be an accidental historical document.
What happened on the night of November 9, 1989, remains one of the most-watched moments of the 20th century. East German authorities announced that citizens could cross freely, and within hours, crowds were dismantling the Wall by hand. Reunification followed less than a year later, setting off one of the most ambitious urban transformations in modern history. Entire neighborhoods were rebuilt, the no-man's-land through the city's center became prime real estate, and architects from around the world were handed the task of stitching a metropolis back together.
Returning in 2023, we revisited the same streets and landmarks and recreated the original photographs. The result is something more personal than a standard before-and-after documentary. The 34 years between frames carry not just the history of a city but the arc of a life, and the contrast between what the camera saw in 1989 and what it sees today makes both the city's transformation and the passage of time feel immediate and real.