Flowers stuck in remains of the Berlin Wall during a commemoration ceremony to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall at the Wall memorial site at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The Associated Press
BERLIN (AP) - Germany marked the 30th anniversary Saturday of the opening of the Berlin Wall, a pivotal moment in the events that brought down Communism in eastern Europe.
Leaders from Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic attended a ceremony at Bernauer Strasse - where one of the last parts of the Berlin Wall remains - before placing roses in gaps in the once-fearsome barrier that divided the city for 28 years.
Axel Klausmeier, head of the Berlin Wall memorial site, recalled the images of delirious Berliners from East and West crying tears of joy as they hugged each other on the evening of Nov. 9, 1989 .
Klausmeier paid tribute to the peaceful protesters in East Germany and neighboring Warsaw Pact countries who took to the streets demanding freedom and democracy, and to then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of reforms.
The protests and a stream of people fleeing East Germany piled pressure on the country's Communist government to open its borders to the West and ultimately end the nation's post-war division.
Thirty years on, Germany has become the most powerful economic and political force on the continent, but there remain deep misgivings among some in the country about how the transition from socialism to capitalism was managed.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged this in a recent interview with daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, saying that "with some things, where one might have thought that East and West would have aligned, one can see today that it might rather take half a century or more."
Speaking at a memorial service in a small chapel near where the Wall once stood, Merkel commemorated those who were killed or imprisoned for trying to flee from East to West Germany and insisted that the fight for freedom worldwide isn't over.
"The Berlin Wall, ladies and gentlemen, is history and it teaches us: No wall that keeps people out and restricts freedom is so high or so wide that it can't be broken down," she said.
Merkel also recalled that Nov. 9 remains a fraught date in German history, as it also marks the anniversary of the so-called Night of Broken Glass, an anti-Jewish pogrom in 1938 that foreshadowed the Nazi's Holocaust.
Light installations, concerts and public debates were planned throughout the city and other parts of Germany to mark the fall of the Wall, including a concert at Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate.
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Young people stuck flowers in remains of the Berlin Wall during a commemoration ceremony to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall at the Wall memorial site at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The Associated Press
German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds an umbrella as she arrives at the Berlin Wall Memorial in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, pool)
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FILE - This Friday, June 12, 1987 file photo shows President Reagan giving a thumbs up sign after his speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, where he had said "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! " Applauding Reagan are West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, right, and West German Parliament President Philipp Jenninger, left. The U.S. Embassy in Berlin is unveiling the statue of Ronald Reagan as a tribute to the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The larger-than-life statue is being installed Friday atop the embassy's terrace, at eye-level with the landmark Brandenburg Gate in downtown Berlin. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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FILE - In this Nov. 13, 1989, file photo, East German border guards stand in front of segments of the Berlin Wall, which were removed to open the wall at Potsdamer Platz passage in Berlin. Months before the Berlin Wall fell on Nov. 9, 1989, with the Soviet stranglehold over the Eastern Bloc crumbling, a young political scientist named Francis Fukuyama made a declaration that quickly became famous. It was, he declared, 'the end of history.' (AP Photo/John Gaps III, File)
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FILE - In this on Friday, June 12, 1987 file photo, U.S. President Ronald Reagan acknowledges the applause after speaking to an audience in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Beside Reagan are the President of the German Parliament Philipp Jenninger, left, and Germany's Chancellor Helmut Kohl, right. The U.S. Embassy in Berlin is unveiling the statue of Ronald Reagan as a tribute to the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The larger-than-life statue is being installed Friday atop the embassy's terrace, at eye-level with the landmark Brandenburg Gate in downtown Berlin. (AP PHOTO/Ira Schwartz, File)
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Grey clouds cover the sky over the Berlin Wall memorial site at Bernauer Strasse prior to a commemoration ceremony to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The Associated Press
Flowers stuck in remains of the Berlin Wall during a commemoration ceremony to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall at the Wall memorial side at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The Associated Press
German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in front, Poland's president Andrzej Duda, Czech Republic's president Milos Zeman, Slovakia's president Zuzana Caputova and Hungary's Janos Ader lay flowers during a commemoration ceremony to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. (Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa via AP)
The Associated Press