Berlin wall rebuilt in lights

The Wall was erected in 1961. Stretching 96 miles, it divided the German capital into East and West, blocking roads, separating families and splitting homes. At one point along the border, a man built a new house from scrap: a property, complete with garden and tree, located in a small patch of GDR land not covered by the bend in the border. Osman Kalin's home became known as the tree house on the wall - Baumhaus an der Mauer - and still stands today, following a campaign to avoid its demolition.

The only other remaining edifice from the Berlin Wall's presence is the East Side Gallery, a 1.3km section preserved and covered in paintings by artists from around the world. This weekend, though, as the 25th anniversary of the wall's demolition arrives, it will be rebuilt out of lights.

8,000 glowing 24-inch balloons will stretch 15.3km through the city, pass landmarks such as Checkpoint Charlie and the Brandenburg Gate. The ethereal recreation of something so concrete in history was designed by Christopher Bauder and Marc Bauder and co-produced by whiteVOID, bauderfilm and Kulturprojekte Berlin.

Large format screens at selected public locations will show film collages from historic, often little-known footage of the time the Berlin Wall fell.

"Everything the city is today is based on that the wall came down," Christopher tells Wired, particularly highlighting the impact it had upon the city's art and culture. "There was a void, empty spaces that could be filled with ideas with galleries and studio spaces. There was unclear ownership of buildings—this was triggering what Berlin still stands for today. It’s important to bring back the memory of how this all started and what was actually before this."

On Sunday night, the balloons will be released into the air, a chain reaction of catharsis exactly a quarter of a century after the first blows were made to bring down the wall and reunite Berlin.

"Remembrance belongs to the people," he adds to NBC. "We want to offer an individual access instead of a central commemoration."

All photos: lichtgrenze