Germany is marking 28 years since the night when the Berlin Wall fell and, looking for freedom, thousands headed west. The anniversary comes as Germany continues to confront the problems of reunification.
Image: picture-alliance/W.Kumm
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Berliners from east to west left candles and roses across Germany's capital to commemorate 28 years since the wall that had divided their city since 1961 began to come down. More than 160 schoolchildren from across the country joined 100 politicians, former citizens of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and other invited guests at a commemoration hosted by the Berlin Wall Foundation in the capital.
Foundation director Axel Klausmeier said the Wall was not just a historical structure, but "a learning center for cosmopolitanism and tolerance — and against all forms of exclusion."
In one high-profile event, the capital's mayor, Michael Müller, led an anniversary ceremony at the Berlin Wall Memorial. Dietmar Woidke, the state premier of neighboring Brandenburg, laid a wreath at the former border between West Berlin and Potsdam, a city once walled into the GDR.
Across the country, readings, concerts, podium discussions and other events commemorated the occasion. People killed trying to escape the GDR were remembered Thursday in the Chapel of Reconciliation, which sits on what Germans have come to know as the death strip, where 44.5 kilometers, (27.5 miles) of mesh fence with no cover left refugees in a veritable shooting gallery for border guards.
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," US President Reagan said in 1987Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M.Probst
'Nobody cares'
On November 9, 1989 (pictured), Socialist Unity Party politburo honcho Günter Schabowski told East Germans that they would be able to travel more or less freely to the West, "as far as I know — effective immediately, without delay." That last bit was improvised and the easing of restrictions had not been meant to go into effect quite yet, but East Germans began gathering at the Wall, ready for a glimpse of the other side. Schabowski's improvised words may have helped set up the fall of the Wall and the reunification of Germany, but the country has hardly lived happily ever after.
Time travel: Berlin Wall panorama
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The GDR's former political prisoners continue to find social exclusion in reunified Germany as they continue their personal battles with the trauma they experienced in the former East, the psychologist Stefan Trobisch-Lütge told the Berliner Zeitung for an article published on Thursday. "These people feel likewise left behind by today's society — and that nobody really cares for them anymore," Trobisch-Lütge said. They are, he added, "virtually the collateral damage of history."
To combat this, Petra Köpping, a Social Democrat and the integration minister of the eastern state of Saxony, has called on politicians to approach the problems of the former GDR as phenomena unique from the country's many other challenges. "We have to take care of East Germany differently," she told public radio on Thursday.
Tracing the division of Berlin
On November 9, 1989 the border separating East and West Berlin suddenly opened, and the Berlin Wall became history. DW traces the remnants of the wall that divided the city.
Image: Britta Pedersen/ZB/dpa/picture alliance
Brandenburg Gate
The Berlin Wall divided Berlin for 28 years, two months and 27 days, from August 1961 to November 1989. The Brandenburg Gate had long been the symbol of the division of Germany. Even after the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, there was no passage here. That changed on December 22, 1989. Since then, Berliners have been able to walk unhindered through the landmark of their city again.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
East Side Gallery
The East Side Gallery on the River Spree in Friedrichshain is a 1.3-kilometer-long section of the so-called Hinterland Wall, which artists from all over the world painted in 1990. It was located in front of the death strip and a second wall. The area near the Oberbaumbrücke is a tourist attraction, but several wall elements have already been removed in the course of construction projects.
Image: DW/V. Esipov
Berlin Wall Memorial
Nowhere is the former "death strip" as vivid as it is here. An 80-meter-long segment of the Wall, including a guard tower, has been reconstructed. The authentic border fortification complex serves as a central reminder of the division of Germany. It pays homage to the victims who died or were killed at the Berlin Wall.
Image: DW/F. Wiechel-Kramüller
Traces of the route of the Wall
The Berlin Wall has disappeared almost everywhere in the city. East and West have now grown together. A strip of cobblestones in the city center marks where the Wall used to run.
Image: DW/F. Wiechel-Kramüller
Checkpoint Charlie
This border crossing is among the best-known sights in Berlin. Only foreigners and diplomats were allowed to pass through this checkpoint. In October 1961, shortly after the Wall was built, there was a standoff here as armed Soviet and American tanks stood face-to-face. The situation very nearly escalated.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/W. Kastl
The Palace of Tears
It was a place of tearful farewells. Hundreds of people crossed this border post at Friedrichstrasse station when leaving East Germany for West Berlin. The former departure terminal now serves as a reminder of the forced separation of friends and families. Visitors can walk through an original cubicle where passports were checked and relive the border clearance procedure for themselves.
Image: ullstein - Mrotzkowski
Hohenschönhausen Memorial
This former Stasi prison has been a memorial to the victims of communist dictatorship since 1994. Visitors are informed about the detention conditions and interrogation methods in communist East Germany. Former inmates lead the guided tours.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/P. Zinken
The former listening station at Teufelsberg
After World War II, this area was used to deposit debris. Rubble from the war was collected to form the Teufelsberg, the highest elevation in West Berlin. During the Cold War, the US National Security Agency used the hill as a listening station. From here, military radio signals from the Warsaw Pact countries could be intercepted, monitored and jammed.
Image: Ullstein/Getty Images
Glienicke Bridge
You might imagine that the exchange of captured spies only took place on the silver screen, but this bridge between Berlin and Potsdam was actually the scene of three such operations. Steven Spielberg used this historic place as a setting in his feature film "Bridge of Spies."
Image: imago/Camera4
German Spy Museum
This interactive museum right near Potsdamer Platz takes visitors into the world of espionage. Special emphasis is placed on activities in Berlin during the Cold War. Among the more than 300 exhibits is an East German Trabant car with infrared cameras hidden in its doors.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. von Jutrczenka
Berlin Wall Trail
The Berlin Wall Trail follows the path of the former division of the city and covers some 160 kilometers. The Japanese donated some 10,000 cherry trees "to bring peace in the hearts of the people." They were planted in different sections of the former Wall. This avenue is right by Bösebrücke, the first crossing to open on the day the Wall came down.
