AirBnB has emotionally marked the fall of the Berlin Wall’s 25th anniversary by creating a touching story of two guards from either side of the wall being reunited years later through the AirBnB’s rent-your-home service. The 18th October 1989 was arguably the most significant event for Germany since the end of the Second World War as it finally saw the literal wall between East and West Germany pulled down. The Communist East was diminished, and whilst not fully extinguished, the pulling down of the wall and the madness of that night was symbolic of the beginning of a single, unified country that would, 25 years later, emerge to be a leading force within Europe. It seems fitting that to mark this momentous anniversary, AirBnB have released the below video which not only highlights the exceptional idea their company has come up with but also the emotional connection that has been fostered between the people of East and West Germany.

The story is about two guards from either side of the wall. After the wall comes down, the Western guard can never quite shake the shackles that tied him to the wall and as the years pass by it never ceases to weigh heavily upon his soul. His daughter grows up and recognises this in her father prompting her to book an AirBnB nearby where he guarded the wall on the border of East and West Berlin. The AirBnB house they go to is owned by the other guard who symbolically unlocks the chain for the Western guard so that he can finally let the past go as he is greeted in a friendly and gracious manner by a man who once stood on the opposite side of the Berlin Wall to him.

AirBnB’s story has already, unsurprisingly, gone viral on the internet most likely because it touchingly helps non Germans to imagine what it must have been like before 1989. One only needs to read the numerous articles detailing the events of the night of the 18th October, 1989 to comprehend the joy, tears and happiness that occurred that night. It is, therefore, no shock that hundreds of thousands of Germans lined the streets to mark the anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall by watching the balloons go up along where the wall once stood. AirBnB have helped the rest of us capture the celebratory spirit that is currently being displayed by Germans from both East and West who can remember what it used to be like and as such, we must applaud them for their ingenuity.