BERLIN - MASSIVE colorful dominoes painted by German students were placed Saturday along the former path of the Berlin Wall to mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the barrier that divided the city for nearly three decades.

Many of the upright 7.5-foot-high (2.3-metre-high) plastic foam dominoes carried messages, including 'We are one people.' The approximately 1,000 dominoes stretching for 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) will be toppled Monday as part of wider celebrations of the wall's fall.

One labeled 'bleeding heart' showed a sword cutting through the city of Berlin, starting a crimson flow of blood speckled with crosses.

'Everyone has walls in their heads to a certain extent,' said Berlin resident Stefan Schueler as he perused the domino display. 'It's always a good thing if one can break them down, and I think this is a good symbol.'

Former Polish leader Lech Walesa, whose pro-democracy movement Solidarity played a key role in ending communism in Eastern Europe, is to tip the first domino Monday as the artistic display comes toppling down.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Russian President Dimitri Medvedev also are expected to be on hand on Monday for the formal commemorations of the wall's opening on Nov 9, 1989. -- AP