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When the East German government made its first confused announcement about permitting free travel to the West, the BBC's Brian Hanrahan in East Berlin set off to find out what was happening. Here is his description of the night the Berlin Wall came down.
At first East Berlin's wide cobbled streets were their usual empty selves.
But after a few miles, we were caught up in a vortex of hurrying people. By car, foot and on bicycles they were rushing forward.
Soon the street was so jammed we abandoned our car on the roadside and ran the last half mile with everybody else.
We arrived just in time to see the barrier swing up, and the gates open.


The excited crowd surged through - brushing aside the guards in green uniform who for years had threatened to shoot down anyone trying to cross to the West. But not tonight.
Nobody knew who would be in charge tomorrow, and the guards were not about to challenge the authority of the tens of thousands out in the streets.
One family had suitcases and children. They were getting away while the going was good. Others - celebratory and curious - were going as tourists to see a world long denied them.
Waiting for them were free buses to the Kurfurstendamm - West Berlin's main boulevard - and even families searching for, and sometimes finding, relatives who had been separated for decades.
'Death strip'
After watching the tears and the hugs, and sampling the champagne that was being freely poured, we slipped back into the East and went to the Brandenberg Gate.