Balloons symbolize fall of Berlin Wall

Associated Press

BERLIN

The citizens of Berlin on Sunday released almost 7,000 balloons into the night sky, many carrying messages of hope to mark the 25th anniversary since the fall of the wall that once divided their city.

The symbolic act recalled the giddy night of Nov. 9, 1989, when thousands of people from the communist East streamed through the Berlin Wall to celebrate freedom with their brethren in the West.

“For peace and freedom,” Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit told a crowd of ten thousands that had gathered at the city’s iconic Brandenburg Gate as he gave the signal to release the balloons, which has been placed, illuminated, along a 9-mile stretch of the former border.

Earlier he thanked the former leaders of Poland, Hungary and the Soviet Union — Lech Walesa, Miklos Nemeth and Mikhail Gorbachev — for having helped set the stage for Germany’s peaceful revolution.

Gorbachev — who is still a popular figure in Germany — was greeted with affectionate shouts of “Gorbi, Gorbi” by the crowds.

Hours earlier German Chancellor Angela Merkel had honored the memory of the 138 people who died along the Berlin Wall, and the countless others who suffered during its 28-year existence.