Berlin: ‘Fall showed dreams can come true’

The fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago, heralding the end to the Cold War between East and West, showed the world that "dreams can come true" and should inspire people trapped in tyranny everywhere, Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday.

Festivities to mark the anniversary have drawn more than 100,000 Berliners and tourists to the centre of the once-divided city. Many wandered along a 15km former “death strip” where the Wall once stood, and 7,000 illuminated helium balloons were perched 3.6m high on poles — matching the height of the barrier built in 1961 by Communist East Germany.

Merkel, a young scientist in Communist East Berlin when she got her first taste of freedom on November 9, 1989, said in a speech that the Wall’s opening in response to mass popular pressure would be eternally remembered as a triumph of the human spirit.