The City of Berlin was looking for ideas or one big idea to celebrate "25 Years Fall of the Berlin Wall" as a 3-day event for the citizens and with the citizens of Berlin. This event was not supposed to be a central and short timed event, but more a city wide memorial installation taking into account the historical, physical and political dimension of the Berlin Wall. The city wanted a whole weekend of remembering and understanding the Berlin Wall and celebrating its fall in 1989.

Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall the differences between the east and west part were clearly visible. But the scar had grown over so fast that no one today could really tell anymore where the wall exactly used to stand. This was the main inspiration for LICHTGRENZE – to mark the Berlin Wall once again and give people an opportunity to discuss its historical impact and understand the importance of its fall as the fundament of todays Berlin.

The use of light was intended as a symbolic nod to the Peaceful Revolution, a process of sociopolitical change that eventually led to the reunification of Germany. In particular, protests held in the east German city of Leipzig in October 1989 saw 70,000 demonstrators protesting against the German Democratic Republic (GDR) authorities, carrying candles as a symbol of their peaceful intentions. A month later the Berlin Wall fell when checkpoints were opened to allow passage between the two halves of the city.

As a public installation bearing great political and cultural significance, the LICHTGRENZE project also aimed for public engagement. Additionally it would be closing streets temporarily and have a significant impact on Berlin city life once again.

The 8000 balloon lights of the LICHTGRENZE installation had to incorporate various qualities and functions. They had to be easy transportable to distribute them all across the city but stand solid after being filled with water. They had to resist winds of 60 kilometers, rain and cold. The battery had to power the LED for 3 days and nights with the same intensity. And finally a mechanism with a special security key had to be incorporated to allow the release of the helium filled balloon after 3 days. All those features in a product produced for less than 100 Euros!

The LICHTGRENZE light installation is made out of 8000 individual balloon lights, 340cm high and distributed with 250cm distances along the line. Each balloon light is made out of 45 specifically produced parts. Those include a water filled foot with batteries, a carbon fiber pole, a plastic funnel on top with integrated white LEDs and a ballloon mounting and release mechanism. This mechanism holds a 60cm latex balloon filled with helium which can be released by pulling a string. The LICHTGRENZE balloon lights can be broken down into 4 parts for easy transport and quick setup. An integrated power converter and rechargeable battery allow for direct power connection or 16 hours of independent operation.

As an integral part of the LICHTGRENZE, large format screens at selected public locations were showing the film collages MAUERSTÜCKE (wall pieces) made from historic, often little-known archive footage about the construction, life and fall of the Berlin Wall.

Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world were strolling along the LICHTGRENZE for 2 days and nights talking to each other, interacting, learning, understanding, enjoying. More than one million people were taking part in the final balloon release event on the 3rd night also representing the highest amount of visitors in history for Berlin in November. Thousands of TV, radio and newspaper publications were reporting the event world wide accompanied by countless facebook, twitter, instagram and other social media posts. LICHTGRENZE went from 50 to 250.000 hits on Google within 1 month and became the official “word of the year” in Germany in 2014. The balloon light specifically developed for this event has afterwards become a real product that can be used in countless outdoor applications, numbers and arrangements.