Young teenagers across the world watched the event on television. Characteristically stiff Germans, from both East and West literally let their hair down and began to sing, dance and drink in the street.

Years and years of indoctrination to counter the Communist propaganda went out of the window. Those teenagers were probably the first generation to grow up with that image to symbolise Europe as we know it today.

The strange thing is that while older people treated the tearing down of the Berlin wall with trepidation and suspicions, these teenagers welcomed the news with open arms as if the wall had never existed.

The older generations have come round in the last 20 years and they have come to realise that the removal of this tangible division between East and West could be removed and that reformation of Soviet satellite states could come about.

It all came about as an accident – an East German minister forgot about an embargo on an announcement that was supposed to come out at 4am (hence no crowds) that restrictions on traveling from East to West Berlin were to be eased.

It came out a few hours later on prime time television and the crowds poured out into the streets unannounced. Border guards had of course been briefed on the decision, but in no way could they have expected millions of Berliners (practically the whole population) gathering and thronging at border points. Within minutes families began to climb over the walls to meet loved ones. Strangers began to hitch each other up over the wall, people who never smoked brought out celebratory cigars – it was mayhem, but all joyous mayhem.

As more and more crowds gathered, people began to cross over at the posts themselves. And this is where we should spare a thought for the border guards. Those men who manned the crossing points saved a great many lives that day. Although it is not clear what orders they had at the time, let us never forget that people used to be shot for attempting to cross over. Shoot to kill. And on that day, without any guidance from their superiors, those men made it possible for East and West Germany to become one. In turn, they made possible the Westernisation of Soviet Europe and they also made possible the enlarged European Union.

While all this was unfolding, the administration of the GDR was powerless to do anything. The government had to sit, impotently, as history unfolded before their very eyes. Oh what a night it was.

Today, if one visits Berlin, there is little to remind us of the days when the Continent was divided. Only very small sections of the wall remain. But it is important to highlight this historic moment. Many youngsters today simply do not understand the profoundness of this event. It was not merely about a divided city, or a divided country, or even a divided Europe. It was about a divided world where East and West used to hold each other (and more importantly the citizens) to ransom with nuclear arsenals and the potential of global nuclear war.

One can go as far as to say that the tearing down of the wall was the last major event which shaped the way Europe looks today. Germany of course still has its woes. The German nation still reels at its own recent history during the time of the Nazis, but we will say something – Europe as we know it today has the German people to thank for it. More importantly, they have a few hundred former East German border guards to thank for it. German nationals may not understand just how much they have contributed to a united Europe through simple people power. And it all happened by accident on one night in 1989.