Berlin Wall 'day of celebration'
Chancellor Angela Merkel has joined former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and other luminaries at what was once a fortified border crossing - retracing her steps on the night 20 years ago that the Berlin Wall fell.
The Bornholmer Strasse bridge was the first crossing to open on November 9, 1989 following a communist official's confused announcement that East Germany was lifting travel restrictions.
Ms Merkel crossed the bridge with prominent former East Germans.
She was joined there by Mr Gorbachev and Poland's pro-democracy leader, Lech Walesa. Ms Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, thanked Mr Gorbachev for making change possible.
She said it was "not just a day of celebration for Germany, (but) a day of celebration for the whole of Europe."
Ms Merkel started the day with President Horst Koehler and other leaders at a prayer service at a former East Berlin church that was a rallying point for opposition activists in 1989. "We remember the tears of joy, the faces of delight, the liberation," Lutheran Bishop Wolfgang Huber told the congregation at the Gethsemane Church.
East Germany's fortified border crumbled on the evening of November 9 1989 after 28 years holding in the country's citizens - a pivotal moment in the collapse of communism in Europe that followed a confused announcement by a senior official.
At the end of a plodding news conference, Politburo spokesman Guenter Schabowski off-handedly said East Germany was lifting restrictions on travel across its border with West Germany. Pressed on when the regulation would take effect, he looked down at his notes and stammered: "As far as I know, this enters into force... this is immediately, without delay." Mr Schabowski has said he did not know that the change was not supposed to be announced until the following morning.
East Berliners streamed toward border crossings. Facing huge crowds and lacking instructions, border guards opened the gates - and the wall was on its way into history.
