Angela Merkel kicks off celebrations to mark Berlin Wall’s fall 25 years on

The German Chancellor has said the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago “has shown us that dreams can come true”. Angela Merkel honored their memory and paid tribute to those who helped bring down the Wall, calling its collapse an example of the human yearning for freedom. In its 28-year history, the Berlin Wall became a potent symbol of the Cold War with its watchtowers and so-called “death-strip” where an estimated 5,000 people risked their lives to escape the hardline regime. But cracks started to appear in the imposing edifice when mainly bloodless revolutions in Poland and Hungary heralded the loosening of communism’s grip in eastern Europe.

The Berlin Wall, this symbol of state abuse cast in concrete, took millions of people to the limits of what is tolerable, and all too many beyond it. Little wonder that after the border opened within a year it had all but vanished. Nothing has to stay the way it is, however big the hurdles are.

Chancellor Angela Merkel

On the night of Nov. 9, 1989, thousands of East Berliners streamed through the once-closed border crossings after communist authorities caved in to mounting pressure and relaxed travel restrictions that had prevented their citizens from going to the west for decades. A million people were expected to attend the Sunday’s festivities in Berlin, which included an open-air party at the city’s Brandenburg Gate and the release of hundreds of helium-filled balloon strung along a 15-kilometer (9-mile) stretch of the former border.

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