East Germans were elated. Imagine it as if a few hundred thousand Mexicans were waiting for the wall to come down between the dirty, run-down, falling apart Mexico (East Berlin) and the glittering, shiny, filled-with-hope-and-new-things America (West Berlin, and, by extension, all glorious things both western and modern).
West Germans on the other hand, well, their elation was tempered by knowing that they were going to absorb a large collection of low-skilled, less-educated workers, as well as a bunch of rotting infrastructure, and that it was going to sack the economy. (At least some older generation Germans felt this way.)
Reunification of Germany, then, was good and wonderful in terms of filling up the hole in the middle of the national doughnut (figuratively speaking), quite literally putting families back together again, and in terms of putting back together the once-sundered former (and now again) capital.
During the Reagan years, by the way, he was despised, American politics were despised, and American politics in Germany, in particular, were despised, especially those politics relating to American military presence there. Kind of like now. Never mind that the American military and political stance in Germany had a lot to do with the dismantling of that wall. (Just ask Gorbachev.)
It seems, though, that if you were there when the wall came down, twas something of a festive mood, at least for the younger and politically active crowd in the west. As for the Easterners, they were choking all exits from East Berlin back on November 9, 1989, after an official announcement by Günter Schabowski, the East German Minister of Propaganda, seemed to say they were free to go. Parties followed. In fact, there was much cheering and celebrating and whoop-de-do from the world of musicians, many of whom wanted to share that stage with that historic event, and did.
Don't know much more, as I wasn't there then, these memories plucked from visits when there was still a wall and later when there was not, still other memories plucked from recollected conversations with those who lived there then, and some who still do now.
As for color, the Brandenburg gate is perhaps the most well-recognized relic in the city -- and perhaps useful in this context, too, because it's where Reagan famously asked Gorbachev to tear down the wall -- and it's only about a block from the Reichstag on one side and even closer to the Russian, British, and U.S. embassies on the other.
If I come up with something more interesting and specific, I'll post something else. By the way, if you go there now, in places where the wall used to stand, you'll often find a line of bricks or concrete slashing right through sidewalks, streets, pavement, commemorating what was once there, and when it went away...
