Actually, it isn't the entire Wall that is being restored, but a three-quarter mile section that has remained (more or less) standing since the wall's historic opening in the late 80's. The section of wall will become a symbol for future generations, a symbol of freedom' in a manner of speaking---as East met West for the first time since the Wall's construction in 1961.
Crumbling and disintegrating, whether from age, souvenir hunters, and weather rot, the last remaining section of the Wall had become an eye-sore to the area until a group of artists began a project to re-paint murals that they themselves had originally painted on the wall decades before. The Wall has been turned into a memorial of sorts; remembering a time of ending the division and dissatisfaction of a country that had survived and put behind them the horrors of Nazism.
The painted wall "is a document that allows future generations to picture for themselves what the wall meant," Mayor Klaus Wowereit said at an inauguration ceremony for the restoration.
Kani Alavi, head of the East Side Gallery Artists' Association was the driving force behind the restoration project and said that the Wall as an East Side Gallery would, "
stand for democracy and human rights." The Berlin Wall was originally constructed to keep East Germans basically captive in their own country. According to statistics, 3.5 million East Germans left for the West before the construction of the Wall in 1961, totaling 20% of the entire East German population. And most of these emigrants were young and well educated-leading to what officials of East Germany dubbed "The Brain Drain".
The creation of the Wall had important implications for both German states. By stopping the exodus of people from East Germany, the East German government was able to reassert its control over the country: in spite of discontent with the wall, economic problems caused by dual currency and the black market were basicly eliminated, and the economy in the German Democratic Republic began to grow. On the other hand though, the Wall proved a public relations disaster for the communist sector as a whole. Western powers used it in propaganda as a symbol of communist tyranny, particularly after the shootings of attempting defectors (which were later treated as acts of murder by the reunified Germany).
It is planned that on November 9, 2009, Berlin will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a "Festival of Freedom", during which over 1,000 foam domino tiles over 8 feet tall will be stacked along the former route of the wall in the city center and toppled.
In the United States, the German Embassy is coordinating a public diplomacy campaign with the motto "Freedom Without Walls" to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. And that, I think, says it all---"
Freedom without walls!" 
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