--- title: Berlin Wall Anniversary Story From Airbnb description: The Wall fell on Nov. 9, 1989 canonical: https://time.com/3573111/berlin-wall-anniversary-airbnb/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-07T21:33:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:16.161Z og:title: Berlin Wall Anniversary Story From Airbnb og:description: The Wall fell on Nov. 9, 1989 og:url: https://time.com/3573111/berlin-wall-anniversary-airbnb/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Berlin Wall Anniversary Story From Airbnb twitter:description: The Wall fell on Nov. 9, 1989 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch AirBnB's Touching Berlin Wall Anniversary Story ## Video: Wall and Chain- a story of breaking down walls [Watch (HLS stream): Wall and Chain- a story of breaking down walls](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Woo1OPhM.m3u8) (1:16)  _Published 2014-11-07. Wall and Chain- a story of breaking down walls_ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 7, 2014 9:33 PM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 7, 2014 9:33 PM UTC You know communism is really dead when the Berlin Wall is being used to advertise AirBnB, the site that allows people to rent out their homes and apartments. But the 75-second ad, which marks [the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall](http://time.com/3557321/berlin-wall-stories/), is surprisingly touching. “[Wall and Chain](http://belonganywhere.com/)” is the story of an old man, Jörg, who served as a guard on the West side of the wall many years ago. He’s haunted by his experience, until his daughter Cathrine takes him back to Berlin to visit his old home. When they meet their AirBnB host, Kai, they find out that he was once a guard on the East side of the wall, and Jörg is finally able to let go of his past. And while few other companies saw an advertising opportunity in the dark past of a divided city, AirBnB was able to turn history into a heartwarming animated short. [**(MORE: See an interactive timeline of the Berlin wall)**](http://time.com/3559122/berlin-wall-timeline/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3573111/berlin-wall-anniversary-airbnb/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3573111/berlin-wall-anniversary-airbnb/"},"headline":"Watch AirBnB's Touching Berlin Wall Anniversary Story","datePublished":"2014-11-07T21:33:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:16.161Z","description":"The Wall fell on Nov. 9, 1989","url":"https://time.com/3573111/berlin-wall-anniversary-airbnb/","keywords":["Living","Advertising","Airbnb","Berlin Wall"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3573111/berlin-wall-anniversary-airbnb/","name":"Watch AirBnB's Touching Berlin Wall Anniversary Story"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Wall and Chain- a story of breaking down walls","description":"Wall and Chain- a story of breaking down walls","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Woo1OPhM/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-11-07T20:50:07.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Woo1OPhM.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3573111/berlin-wall-anniversary-airbnb/","duration":"PT1M16S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3573111/berlin-wall-anniversary-airbnb/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```