Berlin gears up for 20th year since the Wall fell
BERLIN - Berlin warmed up for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall with events throughout the city, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Sunday for a new trans-Atlantic push to free those still oppressed.
"Our history did not end the night the Wall came down," Clinton said on the eve of the celebrations marking the end of the Cold War and the continent's division.
"To expand freedom to more people, we cannot accept that freedom does not belong to all people. We cannot allow oppression defined and justified by religion or tribe to replace that of [communist] ideology."
Leaders from across Europe were to join around 100,000 revelers today at the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of national unity since the peaceful revolution that tore down the Wall in 1989.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will host leaders including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, recalled that the end of Europe's postwar rift came as an utter surprise.
"The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall should remind us all what incredible luck we had with the reunification of Europe and Germany," Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, told the newspaper Bild.
On Nov. 9, 1989, following weeks of pro-democracy protests, the Stalinist state's authorities suddenly opened the border after 28 years of separation.
"History is palpable and alive here," Mayor Klaus Wowereit said. "The peaceful revolution of the fall of the Wall 20 years ago paved the way to an unprecedented transformation of Berlin."
In the run-up to the anniversary, Irish rockers U2 electrified a crowd of 10,000 Thursday at the Brandenburg Gate with a free concert that included the ballad "One," partly inspired by the Wall's fall.
Today, Merkel will be joined by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, ex-Polish president Lech Walesa and German civil rights activists.
Later, Israeli-Argentinian conductor Daniel Barenboim will lead the State Opera orchestra and choir at the Brandenburg Gate, capped with fireworks and a performance by U.S. band Bon Jovi.
