Remembering the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Posted on Nov 9, 2009

AP / Herbert Knosowski

Dominoes symbolizing the Berlin Wall fall in front of the Brandenburg Gate on Monday.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a group of world leaders from past and present—including Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, Nicolas Sarkozy and Hillary Rodham Clinton—joined German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday for a stroll through the Brandenberg Gate, which stood between East and West Berlin.  —KA

The New York Times:

The anniversary has provided Germans and people around the once-divided continent with an opportunity to reflect upon the successful reunification of Germany and the once-unthinkable integration of countries from the former Warsaw Pact into the NATO alliance and the European Union.

“It is also possible to overcome the barriers of our own time, just as we succeeded in bringing this about in this divided city in 1989,” Mrs. Merkel told the crowd that had assembled on a rainy Berlin night to mark the anniversary of the fall of the wall on Nov. 9, 1989, calling it “a day of celebration for all of Europe.”

“Because of your courage two Berlins are one, two Germanys are one, and now two Europes are one,” Mr. Brown [British Prime Minister Gordon Brown] said.

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