Germany celebrates 30th anniversary of fall of Berlin Wall

On Saturday, Germany marked the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In commemoration of the Peaceful Revolution in the autumn of 1989 as well as the Berlin Wall’s fall on November 9, 1989, the central commemorative event at the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse took place in the presence of German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the four heads of state of the Visegrád states (Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Merkel said at the subsequent prayer service in the Chapel of Reconciliation, “[On this day] We are all called upon to do our part for freedom and democracy.”

Axel Klausmeier, the director of the Berlin Wall Foundation, stated, “To remember the international dimension of the fall of the Berlin Wall, is a special concern for us this year. As a place of historical and political education, however, we must not only look back at memorial sites, because our visitors come with their present-day view and their questions of today. That’s why we invited young people from eight European countries to talk to them about ‘Europe Today’ for two days.”

The memorial service was attended by about 750 people. The invited guests included Wolfgang Schäuble, the president of Bundestag; Dietmar Woidke, the president of the German Bundesrat; Christine Lambrecht, the federal minister of Justice and Consumer Protection; Franziska Giffey, the federal minister of Family Affairs; Ralf Wieland, the president of the Berlin House of Representatives; Michael Müller, the Governing Mayor of Berlin; Klaus Lederer, Berlin senator for culture; and Roland Jahn, the Federal Commissioner for the Files of the State Security Service of the former GDR (BStU).

All guests placed colorful roses in the Hinterland Wall on Bernauer Strasse as a symbol of the resistance and the peaceful fall of the wall.

About 120 students from Norway, Ukraine, France, the four Visegrád states as well as Germany also participated in the event and made statements.

At the end of the event, all participants lit candles in remembrance of the Peaceful Revolution in the fall of 1989.

Berlin planned a weeklong arts festival from November 4 to 10 and a citywide music festival on the 9th to celebrate the anniversary. On the 4th, outdoor exhibits opened at Alexanderplatz, the East Side Gallery, the Brandenburg Gate, Gethsemane Church, the former Stasi headquarters in Lichtenberg and Kurfürstendamm, Schlossplatz.

President Donald Trump said in a message commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall, “On the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I congratulate the German people on the tremendous strides that have been made in reuniting their country and in rebuilding the former East Germany. We will continue working with Germany, one of our most treasured allies, to ensure that the flames of freedom burn as a beacon of hope and opportunity for the entire world to see.”

The full message of the president can be read here.

Image credit - Lear 21 at English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)