Clinton to unzip symbol of German unity

Germany marked the 12th anniversary of its reunification today with festivities at Berlin’s newly restored Brandenburg Gate and pledges of friendship with the US that softened recent conflict over policy toward Iraq.

President George Bush sent congratulations, recalling historic bonds between Americans and Germans since the Second World War and the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall that paved the way for reunification.

Johannes Rau, Germany’s largely ceremonial president, pledged that his country would stay a strong ally.

But the Brandenburg Gate was the star of the party. After nightfall, Germany’s most famous landmark was to be unveiled in gleaming splendour after a two year, €4m makeover that stripped decades of grime from its sandstone pillars and mantle.

Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, helped by former US President Bill Clinton, planned to open a giant zip on a shroud enveloping the 18th-century Prussian gate, which has been hidden from view as the capital’s new government district took shape around it.

More than any other monument, the Brandenburg Gate reflects the turbulences of German history. Once a backdrop for French and Prussian triumphs, then a symbol of Prussian militarism, the gate wound up in the no man’s land between East and West Berlin when Berlin was divided during the Cold War.

When crumbling communist East Germany opened the Berlin Wall in November 1989, people partied on top of the barrier. East and West Germany became one country again on October 3 1990 – the date marked annually since then as Unity Day.