(ANSA-AFP) - BERLIN, 09 NOV - Germany marked 35 years since
the Berlin Wall fell with festivities on Saturday under the
theme "Preserve Freedom!", against the somber backdrop of war in
Gaza and Ukraine, and fears that democracy is under attack
around the world. The liberal ideals of 1989 "are not something
we can take for granted", Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday,
just days after the his governing coalition collapsed. "A look
at our history and at the world around us shows this," 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
"joyful day" underlines the sombre fact "that freedom and
democracy have never been a given", Berlin mayor Kai Wegner told
a commemoration service at the Berlin Wall Memorial on Saturday.
Saturday's 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. (ANSA-AFP).
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