Germany marked 35 years since the Berlin Wall fell with festivities on Saturday under the theme \u201cPreserve Freedom!\u201d, against the sombre backdrop of conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine and fears that democracy is under attack around the world. The liberal ideals of 1989 \u201care not something we can take for granted\u201d, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday, just days after his governing coalition collapsed. \u201cA look at our history and at the world around us shows this,\u201d added Scholz, whose three-party alliance imploded the day Donald Trump was re-elected US president, plunging Germany into political turmoil and towards new elections. November 9, 1989, is celebrated as the day East Germany opened the borders to the West after months of peaceful mass protests, paving the way for German reunification and the collapse of Soviet Communism. That \u201cjoyful day\u201d underlines the sombre fact \u201cthat freedom and democracy have never been a given\u201d, Berlin mayor Kai Wegner told a commemoration service at the Berlin Wall Memorial on Saturday. One Berliner who remembers the momentous events, retiree Jutta Krueger, 75, said it was \u201ca shame\u201d Germany\u2019s political crisis had erupted just before the anniversary weekend. \u201cBut we should still really celebrate the fall of the Wall,\u201d she said, hailing it as the moment East Germans could travel and \u201cfreedom had arrived throughout Germany\u201d. Saturday\u2019s event at the Berlin Wall Memorial, which was attended by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, honoured the at least 140 people killed trying to flee the Russian-backed German Democratic Republic (GDR) during the Cold War. Enduring relevance In the evening, a \u201cfreedom party\u201d with a music and light show was to be held at Berlin\u2019s iconic Brandenburg Gate, on the former path of the concrete barrier that had cut the city in two since 1961. On Sunday, the Russian protest punk band Pussy Riot was to perform outside the former headquarters of the Stasi, former East Germany\u2019s feared secret police. Pro-democracy activists from around the world have been invited for the commemorations \u2014 including Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad. Talks, performances and an open-air art exhibition will mark what culture minister Claudia Roth called \u201cone of the most joyous moments in world history\u201d. Replica placards from the 1989 protests are on display along four kilometres of the Wall\u2019s route. Among the art installations will be thousands of images created by citizens on the theme of \u201cfreedom\u201d, to drive home the enduring relevance of the historical event. Berlin\u2019s top cultural official, Joe Chialo, said the theme was crucial \u201cat a time when we are confronted by rising populism, disinformation and social division\u201d. Axel Klausmeier, head of the Berlin Wall Foundation, said the values of the 1989 protests were \u201cthe power bank for the defence of our democracy, which today is being gnawed at from the left and the right\u201d. \u2018Populism and division\u2019 The fall of the Berlin Wall \u2014 a symbol of the Cold War and the division between an Eastern and a Western Bloc \u2014 contributed to the collapse of Communism in eastern Europe and the reunification of Germany a year later. The 155-kilometre \u201cwall of shame\u201d was erected around West Berlin in 1961 to end an exodus of citizens from the Western Bloc enclave in Communist East Germany. Most East Germans are grateful the GDR regime ended but many still have unhappy memories of the perceived arrogance of West Germans, and resentment lingers about a remaining gap in incomes and pensions. These sentiments have been cited to explain strong support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in eastern Germany, and for the Russia-friendly, anti-capitalist BSW. Strong gains for both at three state elections in the east in September highlighted enduring political divisions between eastern and western Germany, more than three decades after reunification. This weekend also marks a darker chapter in German history. During the Nazis\u2019 Kristallnacht or Night of Broken Glass pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, at least 90 Jews were killed, tens of thousands were sent to concentration camps, countless properties were destroyed and 1,400 synagogues torched in Germany and Austria. \u201cIt is very important for our society to remember the victims [\u2026] and learn the correct lessons from those events for our conduct today,\u201d government spokesperson Christiane Hoffmann said on Friday. Her comments came just days after several members of the AfD, which is anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim, were arrested as suspected members of a racist paramilitary group that practised urban warfare drills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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