What 1989 Taught Us—and What We Chose to Forget

Thirty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, what do we remember—and what do we forget? In a wide-ranging and personal conversation for Project 1989, our director André Wilkens reflects on that moment’s lasting impact, the following myths, and what it means for Europe to confront history with clarity and courage today.

“I was 26 when the Berlin Wall came down,” André recalls. “It was my defining moment. Everything changed, and I knew from then on, anything is possible… or at least nothing is impossible.” At the time, he only wanted to move West, “to be in Europe,” he says. “I wanted to forget about Germany, I wanted to forget about East Germany.”

But the past has a way of resurfacing. “The longer I was away, the more I became Eastern again,” he admits. Like so many others from that turning point, his story is not only one of rupture and reunion, but of identity, migration, and the quiet persistence of memory.

This interview, part of a series by the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics in collaboration with the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and supported by the European Cultural Foundation, revisits the widely accepted narratives of 1989 and what followed. André reflects critically on the so-called “End of History,” suggesting it became “a kind of fairy tale” that comforted the West but didn’t account for the unfinished transitions of the East—or the return of geopolitics. “There wasn’t an end of history,” he says. “It just continued.”

For him, the true lesson of that time lies in Europe’s soft power: the music, movement, and media that inspired change not by force, but by imagination. “Europe actually still has a lot of soft power but takes it for granted,” he says. “You have to invest in it… in media and in infrastructure.” He calls for a strategic approach—not just to protect cultural heritage, but “to win the battle for the hearts of the Europeans.”

As Europe faces new crises and fractures—from Ukraine to Gaza to rising inequality—André sees not just risk, but opportunity: a chance to act, reflect, and reinvest in what makes the European model unique. “We actually have a model which is quite unique. It kind of works.”

Click here to read the full interview with André Wilkens.