Clinton, World Leaders Mark 20th Anniversary Of Fall Of Berlin Wall

November 9, 2009 10:10 a.m. EST

Berlin, Germany (AHN) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joins world leaders on Monday to mark the 20th anniversary of German reunification. The anniversary comes less than a week after Chancellor Angela Merkel renewed ties with Washington with a speech, the first by a German chancellor, before a joint session of U.S. Congress.

Merkel leads a ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate to mark the day exactly 20 years ago when the Berlin Wall fell after nearly three decades of symbolizing the Cold War and dividing the east and west in Germany as well as the world. Clinton and leaders of former Allied Powers of World War II -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev -- will walk through the Gate as part of the Fest der Freiheit, or Freedom Festival.

German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, both Nobel Peace laureates, will be among the guests.

The event includes the toppling of more than 1,000 giant dominos erected along an area where the Wall once stood, and culminates a weeks-long commemoration that included a Festival of Light last month  celebrating non-violent rallies in Liepzig two decades ago, called the Peaceful Revolution, that led to the fall of the Wall.

The Secretary of State arrived in the German capital on Sunday and told the Atlantic Council during a gala to honor her with a Freedom Award, "This award comes in a year of anniversaries -- the one we celebrate tomorrow, the night 20 years ago when history broke through concrete and barbed wire and brought liberty to millions across this continent, but that's not the only milestone that should be remembered."

"Sixty-five summers ago, allied troops landed in Europe with the goal of liberating Berlin. And in 1949, 60 years ago, we formed the NATO Alliance, and completed the largest humanitarian airlift in history... to sustain West Berlin during the Soviet blockade," Clinton said. "The circumstances that surround us today are a culmination of an effort by Europeans and Americans that spanned generations. Yes, the end to the Berlin Wall was an iconic moment.... But it did not begin with the mistake of a flustered Communist spokesman in East Berlin, or even the peaceful masses that took to the street that evening. It had been building over years."

"When Chancellor Merkel came to Washington last week, " Secretary Clinton added, "She spoke eloquently about the walls of the last century, and the less visible but equally daunting walls we face today. These are walls between the present and the future, walls between modernity and nihilistic attitudes, walls that divide our common heart, that deny progress and opportunity to the many who yearn for both."