At 15 minutes past midnight on November 10, 1989, a republic fell-a wall fell. History swiftly blew the German Democratic Republic, or ‘East Germany’, away. Cheered along by thousands of people.

And soon after the cheers, one could hear a clanging sound. It was the people of East Berlin who were busy with axes, hammers, and anything they could find to smash the wall that had encircled the city: the 156-kilometer long iron curtain the Commun