Monday, November 9, 2009

Berlin celebrates demise of Wall

Berlin Wall, 9 Nov '89

Celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall are under way.

They began with a service at the Gethsemane Church in the east of the city, a centre of protest in the months leading to the opening of the Wall.

Later, world leaders will symbolically walk across the first East German border crossing to open in 1989.

The fall of the Wall led to the collapse of Communist power, German reunification and the Cold War's end.

Communist East Germany erected the 155-km (96-mile) concrete wall in 1961 to encircle West Berlin and prevent citizens from fleeing into the capitalist enclave. More than 100 people are believed to have been killed at the Wall while trying to escape.READ MORE

No comments: