Germany marks 25 years after Berlin Wall’s fall
German singer Wolf Biermann performs at the German Lower House of Parliament (Bundestag) during a commemoration event of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in Berlin on November 7, 2014. The celebrations are set to culminate in rock stars and freedom icons joining millions at an open-air party. PHOTO | TOBIAS SCHWARZ |
What you need to know:
- Dissident singer Wolf Biermann, who was kicked out of East Germany in 1976, performed his protest song “Ermutigung” (Encouragement) in the Bundestag lower house of parliament, in a tribute to those who resisted the regime.
- An ambitious installation featuring 8,000 white balloons pegged to the ground along a 15-kilometre stretch of the Wall’s former 155-kilometre path was set to be illuminated later on Friday.
BERLIN
Germany started celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the epochal fall of the Berlin Wall Thursday, set to culminate in rock stars and freedom icons joining millions at an open-air party.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, will lead three days of commemorations for those killed trying to flee the repressive state, leading up to a giant festival on Sunday marking the joyous breach of Europe’s Cold War division on November 9, 1989.
“I think you never forget how you felt that day — at least I will never forget it,” Merkel, 60, said in a recent podcast.
“I had to wait 35 years for that feeling of liberty. It changed my life.”
The festivities under the banner “Courage for Freedom” are remembering the peaceful revolution that led communist authorities to finally open the border after 28 years in which Easterners were prisoners of their own country.
Germany would reunite within the year, on October 3, 1990.
PAYING TRIBUTE
Dissident singer Wolf Biermann, who was kicked out of East Germany in 1976, performed his protest song “Ermutigung” (Encouragement) in the Bundestag lower house of parliament, in a tribute to those who resisted the regime.
He used the opportunity to take a swipe at the far-left Linke, which has roots in East Germany’s ruling party and had criticised Biermann’s invitation to appear at the session.
“Your punishment is to have to listen to me here — enjoy,” he called out to heckling Linke deputies, calling them “the wretched remains of what has fortunately been surmounted”.
Compared to previous anniversaries, the organisation this time has been more grassroots, with Berlin embracing its image as an international capital of the arts.
An ambitious installation featuring 8,000 white balloons pegged to the ground along a 15-kilometre stretch of the Wall’s former 155-kilometre path was set to be illuminated later on Friday.
The glowing orbs, which from above will look like a long string of pearls, are to be released on Sunday from their ropes and set free into the night sky, to the stirring strains of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”.
The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, whose “perestroika” and “glasnost” reforms helped pave the way for the Wall’s fall, was to greet crowds at the former Checkpoint Charlie border crossing.
