Berlin celebrates the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall

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Germany has just commemorated the 25th anniversary of the fall of the
Berlin Wall, an event which led to country's reunification. Berlin
hosted a big party for the occasion, which featured a light
installation along the path where the wall used to be.

Our correspondent Ira Spitzer reports from the German capital.

IN: Checkpoint Charlie was…
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VO#1
Checkpoint Charlie was once a notorious border crossing, today a place
to celebrate and toremember. For Germans who experienced the fall of
the wall 25 years
ago, it is something they will never forget.

(VOX POP - WOMAN)
"There are some things in life that you do once and that is nice… but
THIS, I think was really once in a lifetime, no question."

(VOX POP - MAN)
"When we get in our cars, we can go where we want now. We can drive to
the Baltic Sea. We don't need any papers, any applications, for me I
believe that Germany has grown. Germany has grown together."

VO#2
Hundreds of thousands of people came to the German capital to
celebrate an event that dramatically shaped the history of the last
century.

VO#3
Berlin has installed illuminated balloons that run along about a 15
kilometer path showing path showing where the wall used to be. Many
Berliners have spent the weekend walking along that trail, remembering
the division that used to define this city.

VO#4
Events spanned the entire weekend with public film screenings and
special exhibits for people to learn more about the wall's history.
German chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in the former East
Germany, lit a candle to honor the 138 people who died trying to cross
the border.

(Angela Merkel, Chancellor, Germany, FULL SOT)
"The fall of the Berlin Wall showed us that dreams can come true - and
that nothing has to stay the way it is, no matter how high the hurdles
might seem to be."

VO#5
After the sun went down, the festivities began in earnest at the
Brandenburg Gate, the place where the eyes of the world turned to the
German capital in 1989. The night the border between East and West
Germany was opened and Germans began to tear down the wall that had
stood for 28 years. And finally, the balloons that had temporarily
divided East and West Berlin again were released into the night sky,
symbolizing the collapse of the wall that ushered in a new era of a
united Germany.

Ira Spitzer, Berlin


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