European leaders mark 20 years since fall of Berlin Wall (3rd Lead)

Nov 9, 2009, 18:58 GMT

   Berlin - An all-star line-up of European leaders walked through the German capital's iconic Brandenburg Gate on Monday to celebrate the sudden opening of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, the event that ushered in the collapse of communism in Europe.

   The despised concrete Wall once sealed shut the battered stone gate, an 18th-century triumphal arch in the heart of the city.

In light drizzle, Chancellor Angela Merkel and her guests made their way under the now-restored, floodlit arch and a city orchestra played at the culmination of an emotional anniversary for Germans.

   The November 9, 1989 announcement by East German officials that citizens of the communist country could travel abroad, and a decision by a border-guard commander half an hour before midnight to let thousands of people through a crossing are marked as the wall's 'fall.'

   In the following week, people chiselled holes in the barrier, though it was not till 1990 that the solid concrete wall around the democratic enclave of Berlin was demolished by heavy excavators. By then, the communist system in Europe had shrivelled and gone.

   Presidents Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Silvio Berlusconi of Italy attended the Berlin ceremony, along with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton represented Washington.

   The orchestra of renowned conductor Daniel Barenboim played Beethoven to the state guests who sat on the dais in warm overcoats.

   In a combination of playful artistry and symbolism, central Berlin was divided again, this time by a row of foam-plastic dominoes, 2.5 metres in height and decorated by artists and school pupils from Germany and around the world.

   Lech Walesa, the former Polish president, had the privilege of giving the first push to topple them, representing the sequence of events which began in early 1989 in Poland, breached the wall and ended in the end of Soviet rule in eastern Europe.

   The evening of elation was set to end with a huge fireworks display, recalling the joyous scenes as people in the West partied the night away with the visitors from East Germany.

Merkel, who herself grew up in the communist part of Germany, said at the Brandenburg Gate, 'Freedom does not come along by itself. It has to be struggled for.'

'We are celebrating the courage and the unbending will of the East Germans,' she added.

Medvedev, whose country, in its communist period, imposed the Wall on Germany, spoke hopefully, saying, 'Let us think of our children.'

He attracted wild applause when he spoke a few words of German, wishing Germany prosperity.

In a soaring speech, Clinton spoke of the millions of people still suffering other forms of separation around the globe. She also  remembered the three western allies, the United States, Britain and France, whose armies protected West Berlin till 1989.

 Earlier, Merkel visited the Boese Bridge, a old, grey, steel bridge, where a guard commander shrugged and first allowed easterners through his crossing point in their thousands to visit West Berlin, just before midnight 20 years ago.

   In the week that followed, the rest of the border crossings, once sealed by lethal force, opened up as the world watched in amazement, and tourists from round the world came to Berlin to see the anniversary spectacle.

   'I remember that night because I went out to the streets to celebrate with everybody,' said Helen Noble, who was working in the British embassy in Bonn in 1989.

   'Twenty years ago we would not have been able to stand on this side of the wall,' Noble told her 8-year-old daughter as they walked along the as-yet untoppled dominoes. 'It is fantastic to be able to experience the joy of the celebrations.'

Events to match the Berlin celebrations were held in many nations round the world, and all 27 European Union nations were represented at the Berlin celebrations.

Merkel spoke to the visiting leaders in Berlin of a darker anniversary, of the night when Jews suffered nationwide Nazi campaign of beatings and ransackings on November 9, 1938.

The so-called Reichskristallnacht had 'opened the darkest chapter of German history,' she said.

'We will not allow history to repeat itself,' Berlin's mayor Klaus Wowereit said of the Holocaust.

The mayor thanked 15,000 people round the world who decorated the giant dominoes, including a group of school children in South Africa.

   The breaching of the Wall spelled the end of Europe's East-West divide. In the months that followed, the Soviet-controlled bloc in Eastern Europe collapsed and democratic elections were held, sweeping most of the communist parties from power.