Quarter of a century since the fall of the Wall

This Sunday (nov 9) will mark the 25th anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall crashed down -- figuratively, not literally.

Berlin Wall in its time

On November the 9th, 1989, after masses gathered at the gate on the East Berlin side of Bornholmer Strasse, an East German officer finally gave the order to open it.

And European history changed forever.

SBS's Dateline program has tracked down some key figures in the painful history of that Wall.