The City of Berlin was looking for ideas or one big idea to celebrate "25 Years Fall of the Berlin Wall" as a 3-day event for the citizens and with the citizens of Berlin. This event was not supposed to be a central and short timed event, but more a city wide memorial installation taking into account the historical, physical and political dimension of the Berlin Wall. The city wished for a whole weekend of remembering and understanding the Berlin Wall and celebrating its fall in 1989.

Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall the differences between the east and west part were clearly visible. But the scar had grown over so fast that no one today could really tell anymore where the wall exactly used to stand. This was the main inspiration for LICHTGRENZE – to mark the Berlin Wall once again and give people an opportunity to discuss its historical impact and understand the importance of its fall as the fundament of todays Berlin.

The use of light was intended as a symbolic nod to the Peaceful Revolution, a process of sociopolitical change that eventually led to the reunification of Germany. In particular, protests held in the east German city of Leipzig in October 1989 saw 70,000 demonstrators protesting against the German Democratic Republic (GDR) authorities, carrying candles as a symbol of their peaceful intentions. A month later the Berlin Wall fell when checkpoints were opened to allow passage between the two halves of the city.

As a public installation bearing great political and cultural significance, the LICHTGRENZE project also aimed for public engagement. Additionally it would be closing streets temporarily and have a significant impact on Berlin city life once again.

From the 7th to the 9th of November 2014 the 15.3 kilometer frontier that once divided the city center was re-imagined in light by 8000 illuminated balloons.

LICHTGRENZE was also the central part of the official joint memorial festivities of Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany. In a televised spectactle 8000 volunteering Berliners, so called “balloon patrons” released their balloon into the Berlin night sky. Each carrying a message describing a personal connection to the Berlin Wall and its fall. Like the original Berlin Wall in 1989 the Berlin Wall of Lights 2014 was dissolved by Berlins citizens.

Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world were strolling along the LICHTGRENZE for 3 days and nights talking, interacting, learning, understanding, enjoying. More than one million people were taking part in the final balloon release event also representing the highest amount of visitors in history for Berlin in November. Thousands of TV, radio and newspaper publications were reporting the event world wide accompanied by countless Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media posts. LICHTGRENZE went from 50 to 250.000 hits on Google in 1 month and became the official “german word of the year” in 2014.

The client for this 3-day live event was the City of Berlin on direct request by the senate of Berlin and its mayor Mr. Wowereit. For the realization of this project the city was represented by its official cultural institution Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH, a company 100% owned by the City of Berlin.