BERLIN — The Berlin Wall’s construction 50 years ago must be a constant reminder to citizens today to stand up for freedom and democracy, the city’s mayor said Saturday as a united Germany commemorated the bitter anniversary.
Seeing Berlin divided by the wall tore apart the country as well as separated the city’s streets, neighbors and families, Mayor Klaus Wowereit said at a televised ceremony.
“It is our shared responsibility to keep the memory alive and to pass it on to the coming generations as a reminder to stand up for freedom and democracy to ensure that such injustice may never happen again,” Wowereit said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel — who grew up behind the wall in Germany’s communist eastern part — also attended the commemoration in Berlin, where parts of the wall and an attached surveillance tower now form a museum.
The road where the museum is located was divided in two on Aug. 13, 1961, and about 2,000 East German residents were expelled from their houses to allow the communist authorities to secure the border.
The country was then divided for 28 years. Hundreds of East Germans were arrested while trying to flee to democratic West Germany, and at least 136 were killed trying to cross the wall.
German President Christian Wulff said the “life-asphyxiating wall” must be a reminder to appreciate and preserve the “openness of today’s world.”
Only a few of the wall’s roughly 12-foot-high concrete slabs remain standing — haunting reminders of the city’s decades of division.
Part of the nearly 25-mile path that the wall wound through the heart of the city is marked today by a cobblestone strip, which stretches down streets and across sidewalks to remind passers-by where the wall once stood.
