A look back at one of the most momentous events in modern European history through the eyes of two Germans and one French President.

When the Berlin Wall fell

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/11888393/m003-0299-enx.srt

These images date from 1989  and capture the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The leaders at the time  saw in it an opportunity

to create a united and prosperous Europe.

On 9 November in Berlin, history in action  was offering the world a spectacle

that had been unlikely the day before:  a breach in the Wall.

She was 18 when the wall  separating the two Germanies fell.

Then a young student,  Franziska Achterberg will never forget

9 November 1989  and her first moments of freedom.

it was a case of,  'OK, now we can go over there'.

So after school  we went to West Berlin on the metro.

We got off at a stop  where we normally wouldn't

and walked along strange corridors  where we had to show our IDs.

I travelled a lot.  We spent a lot of time 'catching up'.

hitchhiking, because  we didn't have any money.

With the schoolbag, playing  on the pavement on the way to school.

The streets and pavements were deserted,

everything was slightly decrepit,  not well maintained.

and works for an international  environmental organisation.

She oversees climate and energy questions.

If the GDR still existed  and the Wall still stood,

I would not be living here,  I wouldn't be a member of Greenpeace,

Europe would be far away,  on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

The possibilities that opened up for me  after the Wall came down were vast.

There was so much freedom,  to travel, to learn languages,

that would never have been possible  in the GDR.

In East Germany everything was controlled  by the state and its secret police.

Citizens had no freedom of expression.  And as for the environment...

In the GDR, pollution didn't exist.  Everything was covered up.

If you wanted to find out  about environmental issues,

there was nothing in the official press,

Like Franziska, Thomas Grosse  was one of the millions of Germans

whose lives were transformed  by the fall of the Wall.

I was in Berlin  when the Wall came down. I was 26.

and threw myself enthusiastically  into this atmosphere of a new era.

This new beginning led Thomas to Brussels  where he now manages a school.

A new life that is a far cry  from the one mapped out for him.

my career would probably have consisted  of working as a civil engineer in a company.

many people stayed  with the same company all their lives.

Life would have progressed in a very  straightforward and predictable way.

Thomas is not nostalgic for his life  in the shadow of the Berlin Wall.

Nevertheless  he has fond memories of the period.

Looking back, you view things  through rose-tinted glasses,

often only seeing the positive.  Of course there were nice moments,

with families, friends,  colleagues sticking together,

but you can find the same thing  at workplaces even now,

That's why I'm averse  to this kind of nostalgia.

What values did the experience teach him?

Honesty towards oneself and one's friends.

Because in East Germany, we were made  to deny ourselves from an early age.

This is an experience  I don't want my own children to have.

25 years after the Wall fell, the unified  Germany has considerable heft in the EU,

But the fall also fundamentally changed  the European Parliament

and made it possible  to open up towards the East.

The French President had shared his vision  in the Strasbourg hemicycle.

We have a lot of work ahead of us,  you and me both.

We all today face  the fact of what happened.

We need to know  how we'll be forging tomorrow's Europe.

To keep the memory alive, a piece  of the Berlin Wall stands in Brussels

under the windows  of the European Parliament.