BERLIN — This spirited city commemorated the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Sunday by doing what it does best — throwing one heck of a party.
Hundreds of thousands of celebrants streamed toward the Brandenburg Gate on a cold and cloudy afternoon, joining a massive street fest honoring a day in history that marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War.
Along a 9-mile stretch of the wall’s former route, the city has strung up thousands of illuminated white balloons. Volunteers released them Sunday night to the sounds of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.”
Their rise into the night sky was meant to symbolize the end of division in this once-split metropolis. Afterward, though, Berliners threw solemnity to the wind, reveling in an open-air mega party with sounds of techno music thumping through the streets.
Inaugurating a new exhibition at the Berlin Wall Memorial on Sunday, Chancellor Angela Merkel called the fall of the wall the “happiest moment in our recent history.”
“The fall of the wall has shown us that dreams can come true,” she said. “Nothing needs to remain the same no matter how high the hurdles may be.”
The joy of the moment was tempered by reflections about the dark days of division as well as foreboding for the future. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned that the world was “on the brink of a new Cold War.”
The wall, built in 1961, was meant to halt the tide of defectors from the repressive and communist East Germany into West Berlin. Over the years, at least 138 people died trying to cross the no man’s land.
East German authorities, hit by massive protests and a resurgent flood of defectors, ultimately agreed to allow crossings starting Nov. 10, 1989. But an announcement a day earlier caused a flood of East Germans to rush the wall Nov. 9, with shocked guards watching on as civilians scaled its ramparts.
Today, only fragments of the wall remain. Much of it was smashed, and parts of it were sold off or taken as souvenirs. But many in this city will never forget.
“The horror of the wall is hardly imaginable for young people today,” said Frank Ebert, a former East German dissident. “Whenever I’m at the Brandenburg Gate or at Bornholmer Strasse (border crossing), I think about the wall and where it used to stand. We used to see it every day.”
