For the spontaneous outbreak of national affection did not last long

For the spontaneous outbreak of national affection did not last long. And west Berliners today are quick to complain about their brothers and sisters in the east. The recent city elections showed a city still psychologically divided, with a large vote for the conservative Christian Democrats in the west and an astonishingly large vote for the post-Communist Party of Democratic Socialism in the east. CNN and other networks have their "stages" on the other side. Thousands of foreigners, journalists and assorted stars have flown in. The three towering figures of German unification, Helmut Kohl, Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush, are all in town.

He said he had been most moved by a hand-written poster proclaiming: "Only today is the war really over."Another asked me slyly: "How much is the ferry to England?" The day before, his question would have been unthinkable. Meanwhile, ordinary West Berliners embraced complete strangers from the East, and asked them into their homes for coffee and cakes.Now, the 10th anniversary is being celebrated as a global media event. German television has built a special glass studio right in front of the Brandenburg Gate, on the eastern side. That was how long it had been since he went to bed as an 11-year-old boy on 12 August 1961, and woke up on 13 August to find the Wall.

The people hacking away at the Wall, but also those quietly walking back home with little carrier bags after their first- ever shopping trip to the West. "Twenty-eight years and 91 days!" said one man in his late thirties, strolling up the Friedrichstrasse. But what made it that extraordinary, triumphant carnival of liberation was the East Germans who - prompted by West German television reports of that confusing announcement - flocked to the Wall in such numbers that the frontier guards finally gave way and let them through.My memories of those days are all about ordinary people, not about the so-called great men. Altogether, to see the historic centre of a great city sewn together again makes the heart sing.The human reconstruction is a different story. What was so unforgettable about the night of 9 November 1989 and the subsequent days was that here was world history being made by ordinary men and women. Yes, it could not have happened without Gorbachev, and Helmut Kohl, and the cack-handed Communist leaders of East Germany who bungled the announcement of the opening of the frontier planned for the next day, 10 November. But there are some exciting modern buildings too, such as the new National Gallery and the Sony headquarters on Potsdamer Platz.