Former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa tipped the first large foam block in Berlin, Monday evening, unleashing a cascade of giant dominoes to symbolise the fall of the wall, twenty years ago.The tumbling of thousands of foam slabs - stretching over a kilometre and a half of the old route of the wall, and decorated by German school children, artists and freedom rights activists - was part of the climax of events marking the ending of the separation of east and west Berlin and the fall of communism in central and eastern Europe.
Before, speeches had been given under the Brandenburg Gate by world leaders, including a video address by President Barack Obama.
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton told the crowd, who had gathered in the rain: “We remember the Poles, who led the struggle for freedom that started in the Gdansk shipyards. Remember about Pope John II, who was an inspiration. Remember the people of the Baltic states. Remember the students of the Czech Republic. Remember the Germans who demolished the wall.”
Earlier, Lech Walesa, Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ceremoniously crossed an old border in Berlin separating east and west.
The crossing of the bridge near the checkpoint at Bornholmer Strasse was one of several events, Monday, to celebrate the breaking down of the Berlin Wall, which snaked 155 kilometres through the centre and suburbs of the divided city.
Among the invited guests at the ceremonies were representatives of the four powers that carved up the city into sectors in the wake of WW II: Russia’s prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, British prime minister Gordon Brown and French president Nicolas Sarkozy. They were joined by European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, and Jerzy Buzek, president of the European Parliament.
Lech Walesa told the TVN 24 news station that responsibility for the fall of the wall, reunification of German and end of communism was, “50 percent John Paul II‘s, 30 percent Solidarity and 20 percent the rest of the world. That‘s the truth about those days,” he said.
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