Thousands Remember Fall of Berlin Wall

By Sonja Pace

Berlin
09 November 2009

World leaders, dignitaries and thousands of visitors are in Berlin to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is a time to remember the past and celebrate the November day in 1989 that changed the future.

Despite the rain, crowds gathered at the Bornholm Bridge, the first checkpoint in the Berlin Wall to open the night of November 9, 1989.

The Wall stood for nearly three decades, dividing the city and Germany into East and West. But in the end, protests and peaceful revolutions, such as in Poland, and changes in Moscow brought it down. That led to the reunification of Germany and the end of the Cold War.

In a gesture full of symbolism, Chancellor Angela Merkel crossed from one side to other, accompanied by VIP guests, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, former Polish labor leader and president Lech Walesa, and civil rights activists of 20 years ago.

Mrs. Merkel said meeting here was especially significant.  

She said there is joy in the possibilities that opened up at this very bridge, noting it was the result of a long struggle against oppression. She thanked Lech Walesa and his Solidarity Labor movement in Poland and Mikhail Gorbachev, the reformist leader in Moscow. Both paved the way for what would happen in Germany in 1989.

World leaders and dignitaries have gathered to join in the 20th anniversary celebrations, which include open air concerts, fireworks, and the symbolic collapse of a wall of brightly painted oversize dominoes. The dominoes have been set up to run for one and a half kilometers in an area where the Wall once stood, and late Monday they will be toppled - much like the Wall was two decades ago.  

Organizers of the anniversary events say they want the festivities to connect with ordinary people - to show that it was people power, with the help of reform-minded political leaders, that brought down the Wall and changed the course of history.