Significant Day today!!

[TeeKee]

More people are freed today!

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Celebrations Mark Fall Of The Berlin Wall

7:38pm UK, Monday November 09, 2009
World leaders past and present have gathered in Germany to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.



A rainy night in Berlin hasn't dampened the celebrations


Around 100,000 people have turned out at the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate the historic moment.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel led leaders including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Gordon Brown.

Mr Brown insisted the events of 1989 showed that "no abuse, no crime, no injury need endure for ever".

"This wall was torn down not by the demands of political leaders, not by dictat from on high, not by the force of military might but by the greatest force of all - the unbreakable spirit of the men and women of Berlin," he said.

"You dared to dream in the darkness. You knew that while force has the temporary power to dominate, it can never ultimately dictate.

"You proved that there is nothing that cannot be achieved by people inspired by the power of common purpose."

The festivities at the Gate, once on the border between East and West Berlin, also featured an open-air concert.

And 1,000 giant styrofoam dominoes were toppled along two kilometres (1.2 miles) of the Wall's former course.

Earlier, Mrs Merkel and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev walked through a former Berlin Wall border crossing where hundreds of euphoric East Germans had rushed past 20 years ago.

She lauded Mr Gorbachev, saying: "We always knew that something had to happen there so that more could change here."

 

[TeeKee]

Obama pays tribute to fall of Berlin Wall

(AP) – 1 hour ago

BERLIN — President Barack Obama has paid tribute to the fall 20 years ago of the Berlin Wall in a video message to the main anniversary event.

Obama said in the message introduced Monday by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that the anniversary sends a message of hope to "those who believe, even in the face of cynicism and doubt and oppression, that walls can truly come down."

Obama said: "Let us never forget Nov. 9, 1989 nor the sacrifices that made it possible." He said the fall of the wall would always be remembered and cherished in the United States.

He said that "there could be no clearer rebuke of tyranny, there could be no stronger affirmation of freedom" than the sight of people tearing down the wall.

His message was greeted with applause and cheers.

 

[TeeKee]

November 9, 2009

World leaders, dignitaries and ordinary Germans gathered Monday in Berlin to celebrate the night 20 years ago that the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, an iconic moment that marked the collapse of communism in Europe.

In a symbolic gesture, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and former Polish labor leader and president Lech Walesa crossed a Berlin bridge on the former path of the wall as a steady drizzle fell. Thousands of Germans and foreign visitors to Berlin cheered "Gorby! Gorby!" to the former Soviet leader who pushed reforms in the Soviet Union 20 years ago.
Enlarge
Michael Kappeler/AFP/Getty Images

(From left) Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Polish President Lech Walesa hold a signed print of people crossing the Boesbrucke border bridge as they cross the same bridge during a ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall in Berlin on Monday.

Merkel grew up in East Germany and was one of thousands to cross into the West on Nov, 9, 1989. "Before the joy of freedom came, many people suffered," she said Monday.

Giant hand-painted and decorated dominos lined a portion of the route once occupied by the wall. The 1,000 dominos were toppled to symbolize fall of the communist regimes and iron curtain in Eastern Europe. The wall stood for almost three decades, dividing the city into East and West, as was the country following World War II.

In the throng of celebrants, 83-year-old Otto Meier recalled the night 20 years ago.

"It was the most beautiful moment in my life I suddenly jumped up and went up to my wife and daughter, who were in the kitchen. And I told them "come in front of the TV, this is a second in life you are not going to experience again. It was incredible," Meier said.

Seventeen-year-old Dominic Schwarz was not yet born when the wall fell, but he came to Berlin to celebrate.

"We didn't have this experience like other people who are older, but I think it's important for us to know about our history," he said.

At a press conference on Nov. 9, 1989, an official of the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, announced — prematurely and mistakenly — that visa restrictions would be eased effective immediately. The announcement came after weeks of massive protests had put pressure on the communist regime in East Germany to ease travel restrictions and offer political reforms.

The events caused thousands of East Germans to stream into the West and in the following months democracy movements gained momentum across eastern Europe.

A university student in Berlin, Julia Knut, 29, recalled seeing the celebrations on television when she was a child and urging her parents, who were crying with joy, to take her to the wall as people torn down sections of the barrier.

They didn't take her. But she turned out Monday to watch the anniversary celebrations, along with classmates she might never have met had the wall not fallen. "My friend, she is from East Berlin and I am from the western part of Germany, so we couldn't be together if it hadn't happened in 1989," she said.

Concerts, fireworks and memorial services for those killed attempting to cross the wall were also part of the 20th anniversary celebrations.

 

[TeeKee]

Monday, Nov 9, 2009 @01:36pm CST
(Washington, DC) -- Describing it as a night when history broke through concrete and barbed wire, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a speech.


She told a cheering crowd at a ceremony in Germany the night the wall crumbled represented a new dawn for the world.

As she introduced a recorded message from President Obama, she called him a person who represents the fall of walls of discrimination and stereotype.

Obama called the dismantling of the wall an extraordinary event in history, saying human destiny will be what we make of it.

He invoked President John F. Kennedy, who said "freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free."

The wall separating East and West Germany was a vivid representation of the "Iron Curtain" that separated Russia and the Western powers during the Cold War.

Thousands of people attempted to scale the wall from 1961 to 1989 to escape East Germany.

Dozens were killed as they tried to reach freedom.

 

[TeeKee]

He invoked President John F. Kennedy, who said "freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free."

 

[halsey02]

"they say every man needs protection, they say every man must fall.
yet I swear I see my reflection,some place high above this wall.....and someday I shall be released."
— Bob Dylan

 

[tonychat]

When will the sinkie wall falls... but but but ...... you need balls to do that.. you know???!!!