Germany Celebrates Fall Of Berlin Wall

Germany celebrates fall of Berlin Wall

Monday, 9 November 2009 11:27



World leaders are gathering in Germany for celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are among those taking part in the commemorations hosted by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the then West German foreign minister, are among the main players from the period who will also be there.


The main ceremony begins at the Brandenburg Gate at 6pm tonight and will be followed by a formal dinner at the chancellery.
Thousands of tourists have poured into the city to mark the event that hastened the reunification of Germany, the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the end of the Soviet Union.
Ms Merkel, who was working as a scientific researcher in East Berlin at the time, said this weekend the fall of the Wall was 'the happiest day in recent Germany history'.
She told a newspaper that she was sticking to her usual Thursday night routine of taking a sauna on the night the Wall fell.

Celebrations are planned all over the city, including the toppling of 1,000 giant brightly coloured dominoes along a 1.5 km stretch of the Wall's original path.
Behind the scenes, the celebrations will also allow the visiting European leaders to consider the future direction of the continent following the signing of the EU's Lisbon Treaty.
It is expected there will be discussions in the margins over the allocation of the new posts of president and high representative - effectively EU foreign minister - created by the treaty.
Communist East Germany began erecting its 'anti-fascist protection barrier' in the early hours of 13 August 1961.
According to a study published this year, at least 136 people were killed at the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989 while trying to escape.

where did them 20 years go seems like it was only yesterday

You`re right had it doesnt seem like 20 years.