Germany marks 25 years since Berlin Wall’s fall
BERLIN (AP) — Germany on Sunday celebrates the 25th anniversary of the night the Berlin Wall fell, a pivotal moment in the collapse of communism and the start of the country’s emergence as the major power at the heart of Europe.
A 15-kilometer (nine-mile) chain of lighted balloons along the former border will be released into the air early Sunday evening — around the time on Nov. 9, 1989 when a garbled announcement by a senior communist official set off the chain of events that brought down the Cold War’s most potent symbol.
The opening of East Germany’s fortified frontier capped months of ferment across eastern and central Europe that had already ushered in Poland’s first post-communist prime minister and prompted Hungary to cut open its border fence. The hard-line leadership in East Berlin faced mounting pressure from huge protests and an exodus of citizens via other communist countries.
The collapse of the Wall, which had divided the city for 28 years, was “a point of no return … from there, things headed toward a whole new world order,” said Axel Klausmeier, the director of the city’s main Wall memorial.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, is opening an overhauled museum Sunday at the site — home to one of the few surviving sections of the Wall.
Merkel, 60, who was then a physicist and entered politics as communism crumbled, recalls the feeling of being stuck behind East Germany’s border.
“Even today when I walk through the Brandenburg Gate, there’s a residual feeling that this wasn’t possible for many years of my life, and that I had to wait 35 years to have this feeling of freedom,” Merkel said last week. “That changed my life.”
The future chancellor was among the thousands who poured westward hours after the ruling Politburo’s spokesman, Guenter Schabowski, off-handedly announced at a televised news conference that East Germans would be allowed to travel to West Germany and West Berlin.
Pressed on when that would take effect, Schabowski seemed uncertain but said: “To my knowledge, this is immediately, without delay.” Soon, Western media were reporting that East Germany was opening the border and East Berliners were jamming the first crossing.
Border guards had received no orders to let anyone cross, but gave up trying to hold back the crowds. By midnight, all the border crossings in the city were open.
East Germany’s then-leader, Egon Krenz, later said the plan was to allow free travel only the next morning so citizens could line up properly to get exit visas. But with the leadership’s control over the border well and truly lost, Germany was soon on the road to reunification less than a year later, on Oct. 3, 1990.
Since then, some 1.5 to 2 trillion euros ($1.9 to $2.5 trillion) has gone into rebuilding the once-dilapidated east.
Much has changed beyond recognition, though some inequalities persist.
Wages and pensions remain lower, and unemployment higher, in the east than the west. Many eastern areas saw their population drop as people headed west for jobs, something that is only now showing signs of turning around.
There are cultural differences too: a higher proportion of children are in daycare in the east, a legacy of communist times, and the opposition Left Party — partly descended from East Germany’s communist rulers — remains strongest in the east.
But the progress toward true unity is seen in Germany’s top leadership: Not only is Merkel from the east, but so is the nation’s president, Joachim Gauck, a former Protestant pastor and pro-democracy activist.
Germans today can be grateful to have lives and opportunities, Gauck said, “that endless numbers of people in the world can only desire and dream of.”
People pass by balloons of the art project “Lichtgrenze 2014” or lightborder 2014, along the Berlin Wall in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Nov. 7, 2014. The light installation featuring 8,000 luminous white balloons commemorates the division of Berlin, marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall on the weekend. (AP Photo/Steffi Loos)
Balloons of the art project ‘Lichtgrenze 2014’ (lit. ‘lightborder 2014’) are lined up alongside the Wall remnants at the East Side Gallery in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Nov. 7, 2014. The light installation featuring 8,000 luminous white balloons commemorates the division of Berlin where the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall is marked with numerous events on the weekend. (AP Photo/dpa, Matthias Balk)
A woman takes a photo of balloons of the art project ‘Lichtgrenze 2014’ (lit. ‘lightborder 2014’) at the wall memorial site Bernauer Strasse in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Nov. 7, 2014. The light installation featuring 8,000 luminous white balloons commemorates the division of Berlin where the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall is marked with numerous events on the weekend. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Balloons of the art project ‘Lichtgrenze 2014’ (lit. ‘lightborder 2014’) reflect in a puddle next to remains of the Berlin Wall at East Side Gallery in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Nov. 7, 2014. The light installation featuring 8,000 luminous white balloons commemorates the division of Berlin where the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall is marked with numerous events on the weekend. (AP Photo/Steffi Loos)
Spectators walk alongside balloons of the art project ‘Lichtgrenze 2014’ (lit. ‘lightborder 2014’) in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Nov. 7, 2014. The light installation featuring 8,000 luminous white balloons commemorates the division of Berlin where the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall is marked with numerous events on the weekend. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) Spectators walk alongside balloons of the art project ‘Lichtgrenze 2014’ (lit. ‘lightborder 2014’) in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Nov. 7, 2014. The light installation featuring 8,000 luminous white balloons commemorates the division of Berlin where the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall is marked with numerous events on the weekend. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
FILE – The August 1962 file photo shows an aerial view of the wall at Potsdamer Platz and the surrounding areas in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Edwin Reichert, file)
FILE – The Aug. 13, 1985 file photo shows a view into East Berlin from West Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie. The construction works on East Berlin side of checkpoint were new control barracks. (AP Photo/file)
The Oct. 24, 2014 photo shows a view from the Reichstag building to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The Sept. 25, 2014 photo shows a view of the Potsdamer Platz and the surrounding areas in Berlin. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The Oct. 28, 2014 photo shows the Brandenburg Gate landmark in Berlin, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The Oct. 2, 2014 photo shows a view up the Friedrichstrasse at former checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
FILE – The Nov. 20, 1961 photo shows 12 feet high boards hiding the work as East German troops erect a new concrete wall at the Brandenburg Gate, marking the East-West border in Berlin. In background is the former Reichstag building which is in West Berlin. (AP Photo/file)
FILE – In this Nov. 10, 1989 file photo Berliners sing and dance on top of The Berlin Wall to celebrate the opening of East-West German borders. Thousands of East German citizens moved into the West after East German authorities opened all border crossing points to the West. In the background is the Brandenburg Gate. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle)
The Sept. 25, 2014 photo shows the area of former Berlin Wall near Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
FILE – The Feb. 27, 1969 file photo shows US President Richard Nixon looking across the communist wall into East Germany, from West Berlin during his stay in the divided city. Germany’s Chancellor Kurt Kiesinger is seen behind Nixon. (AP Photo/file)
FILE – The June 26, 1963 file photo show US President John F Kennedy walking past a cordon of saluting servicemen and the sentry post of “Checkpoint Charlie” at the West Berlin area near the Berlin Wall. Escorting the President is Brig. Gen. Frederick O. Hartell, right, Commander of the U.S. brigade in Berlin. Partly obscured by Kennedy is West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt. (AP Photo/file)
FILE – The June 26, 1963 file photo shows President John Kennedy standing on an observation platform as he looks into East Berlin across the Communist Berlin Wall that divided the German city. (AP Photo)
The Oct. 21, 2014 photo shows a part of the Wall Remembrance Monument at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The Sept. 24, 2014 photo shows the area of former Checkpoint Charlie where US President John F Kennedy looked over the wall during his visit in 1963 in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The Nov. 3, 2014 photo shows the Sebastianstrasse that was divided by the Berlin Wall during the Cold War. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
FILE – The March 12, 1971 photo shows the Berlin Wall checkpoint at Heinrich-Heine-Strasse in Berlin. (AP Photo/Edwin Reichert, file)
Spectators take photos of the remains of the former Berlin Wall at the wall memorial Bernauer Strasse in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014. The light installation featuring 8,000 luminous white balloons commemorates the division of Berlin where the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall is marked with numerous events on the weekend. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
FILE – The 1968 file photo shows children playing at the Berlin Wall at divided Sebastianstrasse near Heinrich-Heine-Strasse. (AP Photo.file)
FILE – The Nov. 11, 1989 file photo shows east Berlin citizens crowding the new passage at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin where East German border police tore down segments of the wall two days after the border were opened in the divided city. (AP Photo/Rudi Blaha, file)
The Oct. 1, 2014 photo shows people walking and cycling at the area of former checkpoint Heinrich-Heine-Strasse at district Kreuzberg in Berlin. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The Sept. 24, 2014 photo shows actors wearing uniforms at the area of former Checkpoint Charlie, with a rebuilt checkpoint as touristic attraction in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The Sept. 24, 2014 photo shows the area of the former Berlin Wall at the Checkpoint Heinrich-Heine-Strasse which was visited by President Nixon. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
FILE – The 1980 file photo shows a woman looking at the Berlin Wall along the Spree river in central Berlin in 1980. In background is the construction side of the Charite hospital. (AP Photo/Elke Bruhn Hoffmann, file)
The Sept. 16, 2014 photo shows a bridge crossing the river spree where once stood the Berlin Wall at the Reichstagsufer in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
FILE – The March 8, 1973 file photo shows the Berlin Wall along Bernauer Strasse in the north of Berlin. Writing reads ‘The wall must fall’. (AP Photo/file)
The Oct. 1, 2014 photo shows trams crossing the area of former Berlin Wall at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
FILE – The Sept. 9, 1961 file photo shows East-German policemen in work dress as they remove barbed wire from a brick wall while other policemen in background are raising the wall to 15 feet at the border between the French and Russian sector at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin. (AP Photo/Edwin Reichert, file)
FILE – The 1980 file photo shows a view of East Berlin, taken from an observation platform in Bernauer Strasse, West Berlin. (AP Photo/Elke Bruhn Hoffman, file)
FILE – The Aug. 13, 1962 file photo shows West Berliners waving to relatives in East Berlin one year after the Berlin Wall was erected at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin. (AP Photo/Werner Kreusch, file)
FILE – The July 1981 file photo shows a children’s playground along the Berlin Wall, in district Kreuzberg in Berlin. (AP Photo/File)
Spectators walk between balloons of the art project ‘Lichtgrenze 2014’ (lit. ‘lightborder 2014’) and remains of the former Berlin Wall at the wall memorial Bernauer Strasse in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014. The light installation featuring 8,000 luminous white balloons commemorates the division of Berlin where the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall is marked with numerous events on the weekend. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
