The characters within the film are interacting with the city as much as they are with each other; the city itself is a character to be understood in all its complexity. Memory and history are both tangible within the city, and can be read in the wastelands, and in the interaction between character and the changed urban landscape, both distorted by memory.
In an interview, Wenders states that ‘one of the senses that was really driving my work was a sense of place...I wanted the film to help me find a story that could only take place there and nowhere else’. The narrative use of angels show the city in a timeless frame, eternal; as one long historical event that envelopes human perception. As Jaccaud eloquently states; '[Angels] are a form of vocalised memory or witness to the city' (p.242). The significance of the film also lies in its release date - 1987 - two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. As such the eternal presence of the angels, who bear no heed to divisions, serve to reunite the city with a constant reminder that Berlin is Berlin; not East Berlin nor West Berlin.
The empty spaces are powerful reminders of the destructive history, not only of Berlin but also of the 20th Century. The temporal element of the film not only assesses the past and its effect and significance for the present but also suggests what may be to come. The urban renewal programme has and will concrete over the cracks and yet the knowledge and the memories of the spaces will cause history to retain its presence within the city.
The city becomes a trigger for memory and for reflection and it is the individual who unlocks the memories and who has the power to unite past, present and future.