大象传媒

大象传媒 World Service
Last updated:聽6 november, 2009 - 15:06 GMT

'89 Squares

Where were you when the Berlin Wall came down?

In 1989 people across Eastern Europe gathered in public squares to join in peaceful protest and bring about change.

Romania

Revolution Square in Bucharest.

In the first of several reports, Outlook travelled to meet the people who gathered in the square to herald in a new era.

Czechoslovakia

Wenceslas Square in Prague

We hear from those who were present there at the start of the velvet revolution.

Poland

Bank Square in Warsaw.

Under the communist regime the square was named after Feliks Dzier偶y艅ski, founder of the Bolshevik secret police.

A giant statue of him dominated the square until 1989, when it was finally toppled in a gesture which served as a potent symbol of change in Poland.

Berlin

Alexander Platz in Berlin.

The demonstration which took place there in November 1989 became the largest in the history of East Germany.

Hungary

Heroes Square in Budapest

In June 1989 in Heroes Square - or Hosok Tere - the former communist Prime Minister, Imre Nagy, was given a formal public funeral on the steps of the Exhibition Hall.

Thirty-one years before he was executed and buried in an unmarked grave.

For Hungarians he came to symbolise the 1956 Hungarian uprising.