Communism, the great social experiment of an age offered hope to millions.
But sustained by fear, communism became a monster,
destroying the very things it set out to achieve.
Two events stand out in this history.
The murder of the Russian Royal Family,
and the night the Berlin Wall crumbled to the will of the people.
This is a dramatised reconstruction
of events as they happened on two days that shook the world.
It's 16th July 1918.
On the Western Front,
fierce fighting rages at the battle of Amman.
In British controlled South Africa,
Mrs Mandela is about to give birth to her son, Nelson.
In Moscow, Lenin is forging the world's first communist government
in a country ravaged by civil war.
In the Urals regions of Russia,
the reign of the Romanov dynasty is about to reach its tragic end.
It's 16th July 1918.
Deep in the wooded hills near Ekaterinberg, stands lpatiev House.
Soon after dawn, 17 year old Leonid Esevinov starts his daily routine.
Leonid has been working at the house since April.
The owner was forced to leave a few weeks ago.
Now lpatiev House is encircled by 'House of Special purposes.'
Upstairs, the house guests are beginning to stir.
They, too, have been in the house since April.
There are seven of them.
Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and their five children.
Olga is the eldest at 22.
Then come Tatiana and Marie.
Alexei the youngest child and only son is just 12 years old.
He and sixteen year old Anastasia are the two apples of their father's eye.
But now the whole family are prisoners of the communists.
Just 18 months ago,
Nicholas was Tsar Nicholas II
Emperor and supreme autocrat of lmperial Russia.
His wife, the Empress Alexandra, had grown up in England
and was the favourite grandchild of Queen Victoria.
As heads of the Romanov dynasty,
they ruled an empire of 170 million people,
stretching from poland and the Baltic states in the West,
to Asia and the pacific coast in the East.
The largest kingdom on earth.
Now he is merely Citizen Romanov.
18 months of exile and house arrest have stripped him of his rank,
and any deference or respect due to him.
Instead Lenin and the new communist government in Moscow determine his fate.
His freedom is restricted to a few rooms, and the garden of lpatiev house.
He longs for release but now fears for the future.
In the contemptuous eyes of the everwatchful guards,
Nicholas and his family have become figures of hate.
The captain of the guard is 32 year old Jacob Jarovsky.
This former photographer and watchmaker is now an officer in the state secret police
known as the Chekhov Guard
an organisation that will later become the notorious KGB.
Jarovsky is no lover of royalty.
Following a trail of scattered feathers,
Leonid discovered that one of the hens has been killed,
probably by a fox.
In old Russia, this has a particular resonance.
It could be seen as an ill omen.
A warning to the household that they are no longer welcome.
But the guard, Anatoli Jakimov, has no time for old superstitions.
Anatoli Jakimov has experience some of the worst of life under the Romanovs.
He was a factory machinist in St petersberg,
and it was in the cities,
that the enormous gulf between the rich
and the poor had first lead to social unrest.
The repressed working classes were increasingly
drawn to the thoughts of communist thinker, Karl Marx.
Under his influence,
they began to agitate for the overthrow of the Tsarist regime.
But Nicholas's attention, was elsewhere.
Nicholas had inherited an formidable army and navy.
He was immensely proud of them,
and was constantly looking for opportunities to expand
his already enormous empire.
So when his forces were comprehensively defeated by the Japanese in 1905,
it was a huge blow both to him personally,
and to his prestige.
Revolution followed defeat.
Discontent in the cities fuelled the call for reform,
but the monarchy refused to listen.
When 200,000 protestors took to the streets in St petersberg,
hundreds were killed by the Tsar's troops.
The massacre intensified the drive towards revolution,
lead by a host of dissident groups,
but the communists were the most radical and effective opponents of the Tsar.
Vladimir lliavich Bulanov
otherwise known as Lenin was their charismatic leader.
Lenin wanted to build a communist republic in Russia.
To do this, he urged the overthrow of the state and the destruction of the monarchy.
He encouraged thee workers to strike back, and take control.
Captivity and exile had forced the Romanovs to rely on their faith.
They are a devout family,
and their daily routine begins at eight,
with prayers before breakfast.
The Russian orthodox church was the Romanov dynasty's greatest support.
The church also tended to back the interests of the indigenous Russians,
at the expense of the many other ethnic peoples within the Russian empire.
Jews were particularly distrusted by the orthodox church,
and blamed for the many political disturbances that took place.
Communism seemed to offer many of Russia's persecuted Jews a way out of the ghetto.
The revolutionary ideas of Marx and Lenin promised them
a future ofjustice and equality.
Jacob Jarovski, the captain of the Cheka Guard, is one of these converts.
He has firsthand knowledge of the states vicious antiSemitism.
The presence of the Cheka Guard has made Nicholas deeply anxious.
We feel that a storm is approaching,
but we know that god is merciful.
Our souls are at peace.
Whatever happens, it will be thorough God's will.
This morning, Jarovski is scouting a location
that will satisfy the demands of his political masters in Moscow.
He has found what he is looking for.
A final telephone call will now determine the fate of the Tsar and his family.
For weeks, now, the family have been on soldier's rations.
But despite their privations they stick to a domestic routine long established
by Alexandra in happier times.
The guard, Methaded, has a particular hatred for the Empress.
Her AngloGerman background,
and her haughty reputation have made her deeply unpopular throughout Russia,
but her diary tells another story.
One lives from day to day,
but I am still mother to this country,
and I suffer its pains as my own child's pains.
Despite her child's playful personality,
Alexei's pains are very real.
His royal blood carries the curse of haemophilia.
Simply playing with the family pet,
Jimmy the Spaniel, could result in a fatal knock.
Alexei has spent much of his life as an invalid,
and often has to be carried.
He inherited his defective genes from his mother.
She had been Queen Victoria's favourite granddaughter,
but the old English Queen was herself a carrier.
The one person who seemed able to alleviate
Alexei's condition is the monk, Rasputin.
Rasputin claimed healing powers,
and he attracted an enthusiastic following
especially among society women.
His effect on Alexandra was profound.
When I first met him, I was struck by his eyes,
those wonderful, lustrous windows of the soul that expressed wisdom and God's love.
But Alexandra's association with Rasputin caused scurrilous rumours.
What was the true nature of their relationship?
Were she and Rasputin lovers?
The speculation played into the hands of revolutionaries,
further weakening the Tsar.
The Tsar's many enemies watched in disbelief as Rasputin's influence grew.
Yet Nicholas did nothing.
He trusted implicitly in Alexandra,
but the issue was about to come to a head.
In 1914 the first world war
there was to be a titanic clash between royal dynasties,
whose outcome would determine the future of the twentieth century.
Nicholas thought that a short,
victorious campaign against his cousin Wilhelm,
would strengthen his government.
But as the war deteriorated into a bloody impasse,
Russians at home became increasingly short of food.
Neither Nicholas, away at the front,
nor Alexandra, increasingly in thrall to Rasputin,
seemed to know or care about their plight.
I was told that a terrible revolution had broken out.
Hatred for the Empress had reached fever pitch.
All around I saw treason, cowardice and deceit.
The Tsar had fallen.
It was a bitter end to all his dreams for the Romanov dynasty.
The family were arrested and forced into exile
but fate would deliver yet another blow to Nicholas.
In October 1917,
Lenin mobilised the communists in a bid for power.
Under cover of darkness,
the Winter palace in St petersberg was stormed
by a well organised force of workers.
The democratic government fell.
Lenin had triumphed.
The Tsar and his family were now at the mercy of committed idealists,
for whom compromise was a bourgeois device.
The Romanov's had been under arrest, now, for 18 months.
At first they were held in the royal palace
at St petersberg then exiled to Siberia,
before their final move here, to lpatiev house.
All this time, Nicholas has been hoping to find asylum in England,
but his cousin, George V, refused to help.
Communists have other plans.
Irovski is marking a trail from some old mine workings.
He plans to return after dark.
All he requires now is a final decision from his political masters in Moscow.
The man who must make the decision, is Jacob Slvlerdlov,
Lenin's 32 year old deputy.
But Slvlerdlov is anxious.
The communist's grip on the country is still precarious.
Forces loyal to the Tsar are waging civil war in the East.
American marines and British troops have landed in the arctic north.
The revolution is far from secure.
Lenin has let it be known that he doesn't want the Tsar
and his family to remain focus for counterrevolutionaries.
Slvlerdlov now makes a call that will ensure they won't.
Jacov Jarovski is Slvlerdlov's man on the ground.
On his way back from the woods,
he stops to inspect some drums of chemical
and cans of petrol delivered earlier today to lpatiev House.
Reassured that everything is in place,
he sets off to interview the family.
There is nothing incorrect about Jarovsky,
his manner is always formal.
There is no hatred apparent in him,
although his coldness is threatening.
He is concerned merely with doing a job as efficient as he can.
He would later write an account of his experiences.
It lay unread for 70 years.
Originally the intention had been to bring Nicholas to trial.
But this was prevented by the advancing counterrevolutionaries,
who were intent on freeing the Tsar and his family.
It became urgent,
therefore, to resolve the outstanding matter of the Romanovs.
On the morning of 16th July I received a coded telegram.
It contained the order to exterminate the Romanovs.
Execution had to be carried out that day.
Slvlerdlov knows only too well
that there are still many people still loyal to the Tsar,
actively trying to secure the release of the Romanovs.
A few days before the arrival of Jarovski and the Cheka Guard,
the Tsar had received a note from an army officer,
asking him which window in lpatiev house was unfastened.
The Tsar had sent a reply,
and had waited through the hours of darkness for his would be rescuers.
But no one came.
After lunch, the Guards load a flat bed truck with acid
and petrol for tonight's operations.
Jarovski wants Leonid the kitchen boy sent away.
Jakimov realises that the captain doesn't want there to be any witnesses.
Tsar Nicholas is taking his customary walk with his daughters, the grand duchesses.
Anastasia sees Leonid leaving.
He looks unhappy.
He says he has been asked to leave lpatiev house,
but he doesn't know why.
Whatever concerns Anastasia has for Leonid,
and whatever thoughts she may have entertained about him...
They would never meet again.
The countdown to execution continues.
Jarovski talks to Medvaded.
He tells the guard to collect twelve revolvers from each of the soldiers,
and to bring them to him.
A few days ago,
Jarovski had forced the women to give up theirjewels,
apart from some rings,
which were impossible to remove.
But the empress has an insurance policy.
Still hoping for eventual release
and a new life in the beloved England of her childhood,
she is sewing jewellery into her undergarments.
It is a precaution she has made all her daughters undertake.
From the back door of lpatiev house,
Jarovski watches the Tsar and his daughters,
as they make their way indoors.
Curious to know why Alexei isn't with them,
he walks over to meet them.
Anastasia wanted to know why Leonid the kitchen boy had been sent away.
I told her that Leonid had been taken by his uncle to visit a sick relative.
She seemed greatly distressed by his absence.
The end is now only a few hours away.
Slvlerdlov has made sure of that.
Tragically, the family still hope for release,
as they gather around the dining table to share a last meal together,
they have no idea of the fate that awaits them.
Slvlerdlov is now concerned only with the destruction of their bodies.
Secrecy is paramount.
There must be no evidence.
Slvlerdlov has orchestrated their murder in a way
that will leave the communist leadership blameless,
while exonerating his agents on the ground.
A little after midnight,
Jarovski leaves his quarters and climbs the stairs leading to the upper floor
where the Romanovs are sleeping.
He addresses the bewildered family.
In view of the unrest in the town
it has become necessary to move the family downstairs.
Lead by Jimmy the Spaniel,
they eventually emerge from their apartments.
Alexei is still too weak to walk,
and his father has to carry him down the stairs.
Following him are the women
the Empress Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana Marie and Anastasia.
The children are drowsy, bewildered and afraid.
Jarovski leads the family into a basement below the house.
The room has been especially selected because it has plaster walls,
which will lessen the likelihood of dangerous ricochets.
According to Jarovski,
who later recorded their behaviour, the family betrayed no emotion.
Entering the room, the Empress asked 'are there no chairs?
May we not sit? '
I then ordered two chairs brought in.
The Empress sat in one, and the Tsar put Alexei in the other.
The rest stood in a row behind them.
I wasted no further time.
In view of the fact
that your relatives are continuing their attacks on Soviet Russia,
the Ural Executive Committee has ordered your execution.
After the Cheka Guard had emptied their revolvers into their human targets,
they realised that not all the victims were dead.
The jewels sewn into their underwear, had protected the women.
Jarovski moves among them, firing shots into their heads.
Reaching for his father's hand, Alexei is shot through the ear.
At the mine working scouted earlier by Jarovski,
the corpses are stripped and the clothing burned.
The bodies are dumped into one of the nearby pits.
Jarovski and his men will return the following day
to bury the bodies elsewhere.
For a while,
Jarovski will become something of a soviet hero for his part in the murders.
But ill health overtakes him, and he dies in 1924.
Jakimov is captured by proTsarist forces a fortnight after the killings.
He will fight alongside them until
their final defeat at the hands of the communists.
Leonid Esevinov will return to lpatiev House the following day.
Grief stricken at the news, he leaves, never to return.
Nothing more is known of him.
The final resting place of the Romanovs remains a secret until
the collapse of communism and the Soviet Union.
72 years after their brutal murder,
the Romanovs will be reburied in St petersburg.
The Tsar had come home.
It's the 8th November 1989.
In America, George Bush has been president forjust ten months.
In China,
the government continues its crackdown on dissidents
after the Tiananmen square massacre.
And in Moscow, the soviet leader, Michael Gorbachov,
continues his drive for reform.
The world watches as the future of communism hangs in the balance.
Berlin. On the evening of November 8th 1989.
A city at the front line of the cold war.
Countries throughout Eastern Europe are throwing off communist tyranny.
Tonight the dividing city of Berlin is on the brink of a fundamental change...
a change that will destroy the certainties of a lifetime.
Gunther Moll, a 47 year old commander of the Eastern Guards at checkpoint Charlie,
is about to go off duty.
He steps out of his command post,
to take a last look across the barrier into the Western district of the city.
He sees nothing out of the ordinary, and doesn't expect to.
Gunther Moll has been a guardian
at the wall for most of the 28 years since it was built.
The Berlin Wall is part of his personal landscape.
A gigantic barrier some 120kms long which separates the two halves of Berlin
the communist East from the capitalist West.
Gunther Moll's job is simply to stop people crossing the wall.
From his position,
he can see the Cafe Adler in the Western half of the city.
Moving among the tables,
he can see the waitress as she busies about her work.
Although the distance between them is less than 100 metres,
they are worlds apart separated by history and ideology.
Astrid Behlow is 29 years old,
just a few months older than the wall itself.
Having grown up with the wall,
she now works as close to it as is possible without being shot.
She has been at the Cafe Adler for two years,
waitressing to finance her way through art school.
Tonight is quiet.
But Astrid prefers the summer months,
when the cafe is busy with tourists.
They come to enjoy the excitement of drinking a beer
beneath the shadow of the wall.
It is possible to see the East German guards,
and she often feels sorry for them.
She remembers:
Sometimes we have parties,
and it was fun and colourful, but over there it was so sad.
I could tell the young guards were envious,
I would like to have made contact with them,
but of course, I couldn't.
Astrid knows the guards have orders to shoot anyone approaching the wall.
They would shoot to kill.
There are few people in Berlin
who haven't been touched in some way by the wall's lethal presence.
In the 27 years since it first split the city,
over 200 people have died in attempting to cross from the communist East.
Killed by bullets from East German guards,
or by mines in the deadstrip.
The latest victim,
a 20 year old student, was shotjust 7 months ago.
Many of these deaths were ordered by this frail, 77 year old man.
His name is Erich Hoenicker,
and he is the father of the wall
its ideological architect and its guardian for the last 28 years.
By his authority,
anyone trying to cross from East Berlin to West,
could be shot without ceremony.
But now Hoenicker is a man without power,
about to experience the destruction of the dream of his generation.
Gunther Moll has just handed over control of the checkpoint to his deputy.
He's on his way home
During his long service,
the border guard he commands has been responsible for several shootings.
There is no doubt these were tragic events,
but Moll has been taught to see himself as a guardian of communism,
and as a protector of the people.
Those who died at the wall were criminals, and enemies of his country.
For him, life without the old divisions life without the wall,
without communism is unimaginable.
As he drives down Friedrichstrasse,
the street continues behind him into the brightly lit west,
but he is driving into the gloom of the East,
where many old apartment blocks
and buildings still bear the livid scars of war.
As a child, Moll had played in the ruins of this city.
In 1945, Berlin, once the capital of the Nazi third Reich,
and centre of Hitler's power, was a wasteland.
The centre resembled a lunar landscape,
where every building in a three mile area had either been reduced to rubble
or stood like a broken tooth, gutted and windowless.
In the aftermath of war,
the victors divided Germany.
The Western half of the country came under the jurisdiction of the allies.
The Eastern half fell into the hands of Stalin and the Soviet Union.
Berlin lay deep within the soviet zone.
It, too, was divided.
America, Britain and France controlled sectors
in the West of the city while Soviets controlled the Eastern half.
Stalin was committed to stamping his will on all the countries liberated
by the Soviet Union.
Within months of Germany's defeat,
he established a public communist government in Berlin.
As British prime Minister Winston Churchill would famously argue
'an iron curtain descended across the continent'.
Behind this iron curtain,
Erich Honeiker learned the art of government from Stalin.
For nearly half a century,
he was at the centre of political power in East Germany.
A devout communist,
he helped mould the country to Stalin's will.
A country at the front line of the ideological battle between East and West.
Bernie Godek, a major in the US army, is cooking hotdogs.
His son Christopher is 9 years old today.
Bernie has been in Berlin for almost seven years now.
It's part of his job to spy on the East German guards
and to monitor any unusual activity along the wall.
I never told anyone about exactly what I did.
Not even my wife.
I never shared that information with her,
but that's the way she preferred it.
Today he's been at checkpoint Charlie,
where he filmed East Germany workers extending the walls out of flanks.
Bernie knows the East German guards are nervous.
This building work is a symptom of that.
But as he helps to create a party atmosphere,
he has little idea that the wall will soon become redundant.
By 1961, East Germany was haemorrhaging its finest,
as the young and the talented left the country.
In desperation,
the East German government appealed to Khrushchev, Stalin's successor.
With his backing, they came up with an audacious plan.
At midnight, on 13th August 1961 they made their move.
Under cover of darkness,
the communist half of the city sealed itself off behind miles of barbed wire,
barriers and checkpoints.
In the morning,
many Berliners awoke to find themselves on the wrong side of the new barriers.
Simple chance wrecked many lives.
Thousands were never reunited.
The whole operation was masterminded by Erich Hoenicker.
He was flushed with success.
He had done it.
He had saved communism from the decadent cancer of the West.
Gunther arrives home a little after 5:30.
He is looking forward to a relaxing night
in front of the television watching the football.
He and his wife Inga have been married for twenty four years.
It hasn't been a bad life.
The Molls are relatively affluent.
Gunther has risen from humble beginnings to a position of
influence and responsibility.
As loyal citizens,
they enjoy many benefits.
Their children have been educated entirely by the state
part of a comprehensive welfare system
that promises care from the cradle to the grave.
There should be a lot to be proud of,
but the East German state depends ultimately
on the backing of the soviet union.
Underwritten by hardline communists in Moscow,
and fortified by the wall,
the ultimate expression of a paranoid leadership that distrusts its own people.
As Molls settles down to watch the football,
he has no idea that Germany is the on the cusp of historic change,
that the socialist world is in deep crisis.
East Germany's security is now threatened directly by Moscow,
as one by one the Soviet old guard died,
a new man was waiting in the wings.
Michael Gorbachov saw the urgent need to reform.
His political buzzwords entered the English language
Glasnost and perestroika.
Openness and restructuring promised a new beginning.
Only a month ago,
Gorbachov came to Berlin as a guest of honour.
A show of solidarity but each man saw the other as Judas...
a traitor to socialism.
Inspired by Gorbachov's reforms,
neighbouring communist countries had relaxed their border controls.
Seeing an opening in the iron curtain,
tens of thousands of East Germans were now fleeing
the country through neighbouring states.
Communist power was unravelling.
Unwilling to march in step with Gorbachov,
he lost the support of his own Government and was forced to resign.
The architect of the wall was now powerless to protect the country
he had defended for so long
it now fell on the new government to stabilise the situation.
Their first priority was to stem the flood of refugees.
The shops along the Kurfurstenndamm in West Berlin
are still open for late night shoppers.
Restaurants are beginning to fill with diners,
and bars and clubs are doing good business.
In the West, it's an evening like any other.
At checkpoint Charlie,
Sgt Costas of the US army monitors movement to the East.
But across the wall, there is an air of expectancy.
A government press conference has been called to discuss the refugee crisis.
Gunther Shebowsky, the politburo spokesman,
speaks to the English media.
I hope people will be convinced more and more
that it will be better for them to stay here
because of the processes of renewing our society are beginning to show results.
Removed from the political process,
Erich Haernicker settles down to watch the press conference at home.
Not since 1961 has the government faced such testing times.
Leadership, strength and a steady nerve are necessary more than ever.
Gunther Shevowsky speaks for the government.
Moll is not impressed.
It seemed to me as if the man was bored.
He didn't seem to take the crisis seriously.
It was the usual hot air.
Then Shebowsky drops his bombshell.
He states that as from today,
new regulations have been drawn up to allow East Germans to travel
through East German borders.
Shebowsky seems to have announced the impossible.
The border controls along the wall are going to open.
After a stunned silence,
a journalist asks when the law will become effective.
Erich Haernicker feels shocked and utterly betrayed.
Gunther Moll can't believe it, either.
It seems totally unreal.
Unimaginable.
There must be some mistake.
And there is.
The new laws are meant to come into effect tomorrow,
but it's too late.
Shebowsky has just sounded the death knell for East Germany.
Moll's deputy at the checkpoint calls.
He is worried about the growing crowds.
He told me that people were now milling around the checkpoint.
I was surprised, but told him the excitement would soon die down.
But I was worried, too.
The situation could get out of control.
Excited crowds and armed men are not a good combination.
Thousands of Germans from both side of the city now poured through the streets,
all making their way to the eight crossing points along the wall.
At checkpoint Charlie,
Sgt Brown has just called for support.
Major Bernie Godek is being driven to checkpoint Charlie.
I hadn't heard the press conference
so didn't know people expected the wall to open,
but I sensed something historic was going to happen.
I just prayed no one would get hurt.
Along the wall,
thousands of Berliners are massing at the eight checkpoints,
expecting the barriers to be lifted at any moment.
Bernie Godek arrives at checkpoint Charlie and gets an update from his Sgt.
At the Bornhammer bridge, at Zonnen Arley and Checkpoint Charlie,
the East German guards feel overwhelmed and unsure how to act.
On TV monitors,
Bernie Godek and Sgt Brown watch with a growing sense of foreboding.
Nothing in all their years of experience has prepared either man for this.
Gunther Moll is driving back to the wall.
He is anxious now.
The situation is becoming dangerous and confused.
I remember saying to myself that whatever happens,
I didn't want any shooting at my checkpoint.
There would be no Tiananmen Square,
no gunfire raking across civilians.
That's what I hoped, but I didn't know how we would cope.
The border remained sealed.
The guards stand firm.
They won't open the crossings.
The women in tears calls for the guards to their duties.
She has heard it on TV.
They can travel without delay
lmmediately, that's what Shebowsky had said
From inside the hut on the Western side of Checkpoint Charlie,
Major Godek can see a crowd of people on his side of the wall.
Beyond that, he can see a long line of East German border guards,
among them, the small figure of Gunther Moll.
I'd seen this commander many times before.
Of course I didn't know his name,
but I felt I knew him.
His men didn't seem to be coping well with the pressure.
Moll feels totally isolated.
In his paranoia,
the East German state always feared a coordinated mass breakout
and prevented checkpoint commanders any contact,
so Molls has no grasp of the bigger picture.
He calls his superiors for advice.
I could not believe it.
They had no understanding.
I was simply told to maintain law and order.
Molls slowly realises that the buck is being passed to him.
How on earth can he maintain control without bloodshed?
Godek continues to monitor the growing crowds,
and the bewildered behaviour of the East German guards
normally so cool and disciplined.
The phone inside his command post rings.
Incredibly, it's a radio station in New York,
wanting to conduct a live interview with the men inside.
The radio journalist is keen to know what Major Godek can see from his position.
The excitement of the night is going global.
An awful lot of East Germans gathered on the other side of the border,
there...
and there's an awful lot of activity in the gate
but we don't really know what's going on, sir.
The media are broadcasting these events to an astonished world.
The tide of history is catching up with Berlin.
But will blood be shed?
In the cafe Adler, it's chaos, as Astrid Benner serves beer after beer.
Everyone wants to be part of history.
Suddenly, Astrid hears shouting coming from outside.
Shouting and screaming.
It becomes a chant from the crowd to the East German guards.
This is the moment of crisis for Molls.
Only armed force will stop the crowds now.
I felt pressure from the people calling to each other,
but I also felt pressure from history.
Walking to the barrier,
he confronts the crowds, a camera flash go off
freezing the moment for posterity.
They're opening the door,
they're coming across here!
...I can't believe it...
Without a shot being fired, the guards give way.
The pressure from the crowds is simply too much.
The barrier goes up and the people pour through.
East and West Germans are united.
At other crossing points along the border,
the barriers are also going.
For the first time in its 28 year history,
the wall has succumbed to the will of the people.
Back at checkpoint Charlie,
the first East Berliners begin to arrive.
Bernie Godek feels their excitement.
There was a carnival atmosphere in the streets.
The crowds cheered each new arrival.
It was a kind of baptism, I guess.
Coming over the line for the first time.
The sense of history is felt by everyone.
Many pause for a moment before crossing the line
that for decades has marked the great,
ideological fault line dividing Europe.
The divide between East and West.
Each in their own way is making a journey into the unknown.
Ajourney into the future.
Life will never be the same again.
Honecker is transfixed by the images he sees on his television.
At the Brandenberg Gate,
crowds vent their feelings of frustration and hatred for the barrier.
Nothing can keep them apart.
Concrete and barbed wire have suddenly become obsolete.
Honecker is overcome with a feeling of grief.
He thinks to himself
'the impossible has happened, it is the end of East Germany'
but for many,
tonight is the biggest party of their lives.
There are now more than 40,000 East Berliners in the streets
mingling, with an even bigger crowd of West Berliners.
The party will continue for three more nights.
Within a year,
the communist government of the old East Germany
will fall to the will of the people.
Bulldozers and cranes will tear the wall up by its ideological roots,
and the people will vote to become part of a reunited Germany.
Astrid Benner will finish her studies,
and today lives in district of Berlin that was once in the East.
Gunther Moll will lose his job
stigmatised by his rank in the old state security forces,
he faces years of unemployment.
Today he works as a hospital porter.
After seven years watching the wall,
Bernie Godek will retire from the army.
He now lives 14,000 miles away, in Hawaii.
Erich Honeker flees Berlin, to Moscow.
When communism collapses there,
he is flown to Berlin to face charges of mass murder.
Ill health will prevent his trial going ahead,
and Honecker will escape to Chile, where he dies in 1994.
71 years after the murder of the Romanovs,
he remained true to his beliefs.
Socialism had been betrayed.
It would never die...
itjust had not worked out... this time around.