ANSA news

(ANSA) - BERLIN - Flowers are placed in a joint of concrete segments of a remaining part of the Berlin Wall at the Berlin Wall Memorial Bernauer Strasse for the official ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in Berlin. Germany marked the anniversary with a series of commemorative and cultural events. One of them was the release of about 8,000 illuminated helium balloons, arranged along 15-kilometres that traced the path of the former Cold War barrier through the centre of nation's capital, into the night sky over Berlin. German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Berlin Wall Memorial, which is displaying a commemorative exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of Wall. "We can change things for the better," she said. "This is the message for... Ukraine, Iraq and other places where human rights are threatened. The fall of the Wall showed us that dreams can come true. Nothing has to stay as it is." Pope Francis calls for all barriers that divide the world to be knocked down. The Berlin State Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim played Beethoven's Ode to Joy. Tens of thousands of people attended events, including a "citizen's party" at the Brandenburg Gate, where UK performer Peter Gabriel sang a version of David Bowie's Heroes. The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to stop people fleeing the communist East. Its fall in 1989 became a powerful symbol of the end of the Cold War. (ANSA).