World leaders gather to mark "happiest day in postwar German history"

Thousands of people in Berlin are celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

World leaders are expected to join them in marking the event, which paved the way for the end of the Cold War.

Celebrations will primarily take place at the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of German reunification in 1990. They will be led by German chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in East Germany. She called it "a celebration of the happiest day in postwar German history".

1,000 giant foam dominoes, painted by young people, will be toppled along the former route of the wall, to show the chain of events which swept across Europe, collapsing Communist governments in 1989.

A big concert will take place at the Brandenburg Gate featuring musicians from across the world, including conductor Daniel Barenboim and DJ Paul van Dyk.

Mayor Klaus Wowereit said: "History is palpable and alive here. The peaceful revolution of the fall of the Wall 20 years ago paved the way to an unprecedented transformation of Berlin."

The wall was built by Communist East Germany in 1961, a 155km structure to prevent East Germans from running away into capitalist East Germany. More than 100 people

It was unexpectedly opened on 9 November 1989, after weeks of pro-democracy protests.

Guests will include architects of the events leading up to the fall of the wall, such as former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, head of the Polish opposition movement Solidarity, and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, then West German foreign minister.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy, British prime minister Gordon Brown, and US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton are also expected to attend.

Yesterday, Clinton said that the oppressed still needed to be freed. She said: "Our history did not end the night the Wall came down. To expand freedom to more people, we cannot accept that freedom does not belong to all people."

Far-left groups held a protest march in the centre of Berlin at the weekend, in an attempt to disrupt the glorification of a historical moment that unleashed the forces of capitalism. Ironically, the party is being backed by corporate sponsors.

 

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