Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Recalling a Celebration...

Here's the best video I could find of the falling of the dominos to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the falling of the Wall yesterday evening. It contains some historical shots up front, from 20 years ago, and a cute promo used to get people to paint the dominos by first showing blank ones moving around in Berlin. Then in the last 2 minutes comes the longest sequence of falling stones, from Potsdamer Platz to the Brandenburg Gate. The final sequence, not shown here, was when all the heads of state, ministers, premiers etc. assembled gather in the curve the Wall made around the Gate and shoved the stones down from the center out to both sides, revealing an open vista to the Gate and marking the beginning of fireworks.



I must confess that we watched it all from the comfort of our own living room, as ZDF produced and broadcast the whole thing from all sides, it lasted some 2 and a half hours, and it was raining cats and dogs the whole time. We saw more, indeed, that way, and, as many Berliners are reported to have done, left the live space with poor views to the tens of thousands of tourists in town. We were there on Sunday, and we go through that Gate several times a month, every time well aware how impossible that would have been twenty years ago. It is a sensation you must experience for yourself: FREEDOM

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