BERLIN - IN THE end, the rain flowed as freely as the tears as over 100,000 Germans marked the anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall on Monday with music, fireworks and a giant domino display amid emotional scenes.
But undaunted by the unfavourable weather, the enthusiastic crowds soaked up a charged atmosphere topped off by a surprise video message from US President Barack Obama, who received one of the biggest cheers of the night.
'There could be no clearer rebuke of tyranny. There could be no stronger affirmation of freedom,' Mr Obama said, referring to the night 20 years ago when the hated concrete barrier was pulled down in a peaceful revolution.
Ordinary Germans too, many of whom had been trapped behind the Iron Curtain for nearly one third of a century, recalled the ecstasy of that historic November night.
Later, the unmistakable strains of Scorpions hit Wind of Change, which became the unofficial theme tune of the fall of the Berlin Wall, rang out through the drizzle.
Umbrella-bearing throngs then lined the former route of the Wall to watch the toppling of immense styrofoam dominoes representing the fall of what East German authorities had once called the 'antifascist barrier.' -- AFP
