Legacies of the fall: Three generations reflect on the Berlin Wall German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits Berlin Wall Memorial, which is displaying a commemorative exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of Wall. The 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is being commemorated this Sunday. For a fresh perspective on those heady days and their aftermath, The Washington Post asked three generations of former East Germans - a grandmother, a mother and a daughter - to reflect on the historic event. The grandmother Margarete Neuschulz, 74, retired In the former East German town of Ludwigsfelde, about 30 miles southwest of Berlin, Margarete Neuschulz was watching television in November 1989 when she suddenly heard a news dispatch. Citizens of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) - a country popularly dubbed East Germany - were being allowed to travel to the West. "I just couldn't believe it," she said. Nevertheless, she and her husband, Siegfried, were reluctant to get in their car and drive to West Berlin. We were afraid there would be clashes. It's astonishing that it all happened so peacefully," she recalled. A few days later, however, Neuschulz and Siegfried finally made their West Berlin debut. They set out to attend a performance by the famous Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. West Germans greeted them with applause when they pulled up in their Trabant, the infamously ramshackle East German car brand. Daniel Barenboim conducted Beethoven, and tears were flowing down Neuschulz's face. My husband loved music, and he always dreamed of going to the Philharmonic. This was an experience you never forget," she said. For Neuschulz, the fall of the wall was not an entirely happy experience. A few years later, the old East German pipeline factory where she worked as an administrator was shut down, and she became one of the many residents of the former GDR to lose their jobs after reunification. Still Neuschulz has never regretted the course of history. "It's not that we were starving in the GDR, but it was just terrible to be so constrained," she said. Nevertheless, the 74-year-old still gets nostalgic about the former East. We stuck together back then. Everybody helped each other out," she said. I miss that. The daughter Heike Legler, 54, building manager Nov. 9, 1989, was Heike Legler's birthday, which she and her husband quietly celebrated at a popular East Berlin haunt. When they got home and turned on the television, she heard the big news. She had received the greatest birthday gift - the fall of the Berlin Wall. "When we heard the news, we just looked at each other, put on our jackets, got into the car and raced to the border crossing," she said. We were among the first 10 cars to arrive. She remembers the mass of people streaming into West Berlin, after the border guards finally gave in to the crowd's demands to "Open the gate!" Legler describes that moment as "full of emotions." "We weren't afraid," she said. There were so many people that we thought nothing [bad] would happen. Everybody was so happy. It was incredible. In the years since, adjusting to a new political and economic system has not always been easy. But reunification, she firmly believes, has changed Germany for the better. "Environmental protection was a term that didn't exist in the GDR," she said. A lot has changed in this regard. One of the legacies of the fall of the wall, she said, has been the opening of a new world for the children of former East Berliners. She said she is proud of her daughter, Anne, who has studied in the United States and France. "We weren't able to ramble around the world, and she has already seen so much of it," Legler said. The granddaughter Anne Legler, 30, executive assistant Anne Legler was having breakfast at her fraternal grandmother's home not far from Berlin when the then-5-year-old suddenly spotted a familiar face on television. "Grandma, come here, quick!" she remembers shouting. Dad is on TV! And, indeed, there was her father, Hans-Jürgen Legler, sitting in one of the first cars to pass the border at Berlin's Bornholmer Strasse crossing and being interviewed by a TV crew. Twenty-five years later, Legler is working for the organization that is staging a major commemoration of that historic event this Sunday. Scores of volunteers will stand along a nine-mile stretch of the old Berlin Wall, each holding white, illuminated balloons that will be sent up in unison. She called the run-up to the festivities "a very emotional time." She has found herself especially contemplating her relationship with her boyfriend, a West German. "If all of this hadn't happened, we would never have met," she said. Although she thinks that no serious divide exists anymore between young Germans from East and West, she does feel a certain connection to the part of the country her parents are from. "My generation is the last to be born in the GDR, and our parents taught us certain values," she said. I still feel a sense of home, of belonging. Related Berlin Wall coverage Photos: Where the wall once stood