Thousands Mark 30 Years Since Fall of Berlin Wall at Brandenburg Gate

Thousands of people gathered at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on Saturday, November 9, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Construction of the concrete barrier was started by the government of the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR), commonly known as East Germany, in 1961, and divided Berlin through much of the Cold War. Protests and political unrest across the Eastern Bloc led to the start of its demolition in late 1989, followed by German reunification in 1990.

On Saturday, people drove Trabants — an oft-maligned car that was mass-produced in East Germany up to 1990 — through streets, gathered in front of the Brandenburg Gate, and attended a soccer match where a symbolic “wall” was “torn down”.

This video shows art installations, performances, and displays near Brandenburg Gate on Saturday night. In the video, an orchestra performs as archive footage is projected onto screens, Germay President Frank-Walter Steinmeier speaks to the crowd, and fireworks are set off.

“This wall, it was not easy, the peaceful revolutionaries have torn them down, you, the brave in the GDR, have made history: history of democracy, world history,” Steinmeier said at the event, according to local media. Credit: Carl Bildt via Storyful