On the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, FRANCE 24 was at the East Side Gallery: a 1.3-km stretch that was painted with evocative murals in the summer of 1990. It is one of the few remaining sections of what was once the most visible incarnation of the Iron Curtain.

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The fall of the Berlin Wall was the most iconic moment in the collapse of the Eastern bloc, and perhaps the most significant single day in the end of the Cold War.

To mark its 30th anniversary, we heard from Germans who grew up on both sides of the divide – and of their disappointment at the inequalities that still divide East and West, fanning support for the far right.

Among those we spoke to were 1968 protest leader Daniel Cohn Bendit, dissident artist Via Lewandowsky, and writer and documentary-maker Géraldine Schwarz.

We heard stories of escape and defection from the German Democratic Republic, as well as hopes for the future of a reunified Germany.

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