Germany marks 1989 Berlin Wall fall with 'Preserve Freedom' party

RFI

9 November 2024 at 10:10 am·1-min read

Dmitri Vrubel's mural depicting Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev (L) and E. German counterpart Erich Honecker

Germany marked 35 years since the Berlin Wall fell with festivities on Saturday under the theme "Preserve Freedom!", against the somber backdrop of war in Gaza and Ukraine, and fears that democracy is under attack around the world.

The liberal ideals of 1989 "are not something we can take for granted", Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday, just days after the his governing coalition collapsed.

"A look at our history and at the world around us shows this," added Scholz, whose three-party alliance imploded the day Donald Trump was re-elected US president, plunging Germany into political turmoil and towards new elections.

November 9, 1989, is celebrated as the day East Germany opened the borders to the West after months of peaceful mass protests, paving the way for German reunification and the collapse of Soviet Communism.

That "joyful day" underlines the sombre fact "that freedom and democracy have never been a given", Berlin mayor Kai Wegner told a commemoration service at the Berlin Wall Memorial on Saturday.

One Berliner who remembers the momentous events, retiree Jutta Krueger, 75, said it was "a shame" Germany's political crisis had erupted just before the anniversary weekend.

Replica placards from the 1989 protests are on display along four kilometres of the Wall's route.

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