The fall of Communism
Berlin's Festival of Freedom
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Despite heavy rain, tens of thousands turned out for the Festival of Freedom last night to celebrate 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. While expressing joy at the events that brought Europe back together, world leaders used the occasion to call for justice and an end to tyranny.
Crowds gathered around the Brandenburg Gate to witness the spectacle of 1,000 giant dominos being toppled over a 2km route along where the wall used to stand. The domino rally was symbolically started by Lech Walesa, the former leader of the Polish Solidarity movement whose fight for democracy triggered many of the changes in Eastern Europe in 1989.
In between speeches by politicians, present and past, the audience were treated to music by the Staatskapelle orchestra, led by world famous conductor Daniel Barenboim, and US rock band Bon Jovi. The finale came as the last domino fell, with a new hymn composed especially by DJ Paul van Dyk and a fireworks display over the Brandenburg Gate.
World leaders attending the event urged an end to tyranny. "The fall of the Berlin Wall is an appeal, an appeal to all to vanquish oppression, to knock down the walls that throughout the world still divide towns, territories and peoples," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who herself grew up in East Germany, called for a new world order to tackle global problems such as climate change and the economic crisis. Her sentiments were echoed by Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev who said confrontation was at thing of the past and declared that now was the time to "build a different, better, new world".
In an ironic twist of fate, once the official event was over security guards refused to remove the barriers blocking off the Brandenburg Gate itself - frustrating members of the crowd who wanted to cross symbolically from East to West.
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