By Helen Maguire Nov 6, 2009, 1:08 GMT
Berlin - Twenty years to the day since throngs of joyous East Germans first breached the Berlin Wall, US, British and Russian leaders will join German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday for celebrations which will briefly repartition central Berlin.
On November 9, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will walk through the Brandenburg Gate, which for 28 years had stood out of bounds at the centre of the divided city.
Other guests are to include the presidents of the European Commission and Parliament, Jose Manuel Barroso and Jerzy Buzek.
Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim will lead an orchestral performance reminding of less fortuitous November 9 anniversaries, including the 'Night of Broken Glass' in 1938, when Jewish homes, shops and synagogues were destroyed by the Nazis.
Witnesses to the events of 1989 will also be present, including former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, Poland's former opposition leader and president Lech Walesa, and Marianne Birthler, who looks after archives of the former East German secret police, or Stasi.
Earlier in the day, Merkel will return to the former border post at Bornholmer Street bridge, which was the first crossing to open on the night of November 9, 1989, after an East German government spokesman had mistakenly proclaimed that free travel was to be permitted with immediate effect.
The German chancellor, who grew up in East Germany, had been amongst the ecstatic crowd that night. Gorbachev and Walesa will accompany her as she relives her memories.
A thousand giant domino stones are being set up along the path of the original Wall, creating a barrier from Potsdamer Platz, one kilometre south of the famous gate, to the Reichstag parliament building on the north side.
During the celebrations, the domino stones will topple to symbolise the sequence of events which began early 1989 in Poland and led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, marking the end of communism in eastern Europe.
Rock idol Jon Bon Jovi is performing his song, We Weren't Born To Follow, written for the anniversary, and Berlin music producer and disc jockey Paul van Dyk will stage the world premiere of an anthem he wrote for the event, We Are One.
The night will end with a large fireworks display.
In the days leading up to November 9, people can view the 2.5- metre-high domino stones decorated by artists and school groups, which will form a temporary barrier through the city.
Many of the polystyrene blocks were painted in countries including Poland, France, Turkey, Israel, the Palestinian territories, South Africa and the USA, before travelling back to Berlin.
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