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Dominoes topple to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall (Extra)
Nov 9, 2009, 19:00 GMT
Berlin - A thousand giant dominoes toppled in central Berlin on Monday, marking the moment when the Berlin Wall separating the East and West of the city was first breached, 20 years ago.
Former Polish opposition leader and President Lech Walesa set the sequence in motion, as he pushed the first of the 2.5-metre high foam bricks, to symbolize the events which began early 1989 in Poland and led to the end of communism in eastern Europe.
The bricks spanned a 1.5-kilometre stretch where the Berlin Wall once ran from Potsdamer Platz, past the iconic Brandenburg gate and on to the parliament, or Reichstag, to the north.
The ripple of falling dominoes, decorated by artists and school children in Germany and around the world, was the highlight after a day of celebrations, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Leaders from all 27 EU states and the four World War II Allies came to Berlin, to remember the dramatic events on November 9, 1989 with civil rights activists and statesmen who had helped bring down the Berlin Wall and end communism in Europe.
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