Berlin [Germany], November 10: Berlin, the once-divided city that epitomized the Cold War, commemorated the fall of the wall 36 years ago on Sunday with a memorial ceremony on Bernauer Strasse, a street that was split in two when the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961.
"Courageous citizens, with their desire for freedom and unity, brought down the Berlin Wall," said Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner, joining a commemoration of the wall's fall on November 9, 1989.
Axel Klausmeier, director of the Berlin Wall Foundation, said "the memory of the events in the autumn of 1989 obliges us to take responsibility." Visiting a wall memorial site marked with roses, he said it obliged people to practise tolerance, defend democracy, freedom and human rights, and to promote the dream of peaceful coexistence. The Berlin Wall divided the city into East and West for 28 years. In the autumn of 1989, mass demonstrations put the leadership of former East Germany under such pressure that on November 9 it opened the sealed borders for its citizens to travel.
Source: Qatar Tribune
