Yearning for freedom brought down Berlin Wall

BERLIN, Nov 9 (agencies): The fall of the Berlin Wall has shown the world that dreams can come true and "nothing has to stay as it is", German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said.
Speaking 25 years after the event, Mrs Merkel said the message for those in countries where rights were threatened was that things could get better. Earlier she attended a service for the former East German regime's victims.
The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to stop people fleeing from communist East Germany to the West. Its fall in 1989 became a powerful symbol of the end of the Cold War.
Later in the day white balloons marking a stretch of the wall will be released to symbolise its disappearance.
The day's events began with a brass band playing, evoking the trumpets which brought down the walls of the biblical city of Jericho.
Chancellor Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, and other officials laid roses in one of the remaining sections of the wall.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said  an irrepressible yearning for freedom brought the Berlin Wall tumbling down 25 years ago and called it a "miracle" that the Cold War barrier was breached without a shot being fired.
Speaking on the eve of Sunday's celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's collapse, Merkel said Germany would always be grateful for the courage of East Germans who took to the streets to protest the Communist dictatorship.
"It was a day that showed us the yearning for freedom cannot be forever suppressed," Merkel said in a speech in Berlin.
"During the course of 1989 more and more East Germans lost their fears of the state's repression and chicanery, and went out on the streets. There was no turning back then. It is thanks to their courage the Wall was opened."In a country with few cheerful anniversaries to celebrate after its belligerent 20th century history, Germans have latched onto memories of the peaceful East German revolution that brought down the Berlin Wall on a joyful Nov 9, 1989.
More than 100,000 Berliners and tourists wandered along a 15-km route in the city center on Saturday where the Berlin Wall once stood, and 7,000 illuminated balloons are now perched 3.6-metres high on poles - matching the height of the Wall.
The artistic display of balloons, which dramatically illustrate how the Wall snaked through the heart of the city, is also porous to enable people to easily move back and forth between the former East and West Berlin. The balloons will be released on Sunday to symbolize the Wall's disappearance.
Merkel, who was a 35-year-old scientist in Communist East Berlin at the time, told German television earlier on Saturday that she remembered tension, fear and excitement in the air in the weeks and days leading up to the opening of the Wall.