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Foam, not cement: Germany celebrates the 20th-anniversary fall of the Berlin Wall (video)
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Photo: Dominoes stand in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009. Around 1,000 of these foam "bricks" were placed on the former border near the Brandenburg Gate for the Festival of Freedom on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 2009. The faux concrete barriers will collapse during the commemoration event.
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton will join former Polish President Lech Walsea, former Hungarian Prime Minister Miklos Nemeth, and former Societ leader Mihkail Gorbachev today at Germany's famed Brandenburg Gate.
These world leaders will commemorate when the fall of the Berlin Wall occurred twenty years ago. To mimic the happy event, some 1000, eight-foot tall, hand-painted domino "bricks" will topple along the wall's former route -- illustrating how Eastern Europe's Communist governments fell, one after the other, beginning in 1989.
What once began as a concrete barrier encircling West Berlin in 1961 (built to hinder East Germans from escaping into Democracy), the 96-mile wall made history by finally becoming history.
The November 8, 2009 celebration, called The Festival of Freedom, remembers how the fall of the wall literally paved the way to ending the Cold War on October 3, 1990.
Hundreds of thousands of happy participants are expected to attend. One, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, will oversee the festivities. The world leader and a native of East Germany called the fall of the Berlin Wall "the happiest day in recent German history."
Story ongoing. Please stay tuned.
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