US President Barack Obama makes a surprise video address to celebrations in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. (AFP/DDP/Michael Kappeler)
Posted on 11/09/2009 3:02:22 PM PST by NormsRevenge
BERLIN (AFP) – World leaders joined more than 100,000 revellers Monday for emotional celebrations 20 years after the Berlin Wall's fall and called for a new transatlantic push against threats to global peace.
Chancellor Angela Merkel joined luminaries past and present to mark the defining moment in the end of communist rule in Europe, when the crumbling East German state finally opened the despised concrete border on November 9, 1989.
Merkel, who grew up in the Stalinist state, marched through the historic Brandenburg Gate with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, presidents Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and representatives from across the European Union.
Surrounded by a giant crowd despite a steady cold drizzle, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and ex-Polish president Lech Walesa also appeared at the monument, which now stands as the symbol of German unity. Germans remember the night the Wall fell
"It is not only a day of celebration for Germans," Merkel said of the anniversary. "It is a day of celebration for the whole of Europe."
In a surprise video address beamed into the ceremonies, US President Barack Obama said he still took inspiration from the courage of East Germans who stood up against their oppressive regime.
"Few would have foreseen ... that a united Germany would be led by a woman from (the east German state) Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent," he said.
"But human destiny is what human beings make of it."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
US President Barack Obama makes a surprise video address to celebrations in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. (AFP/DDP/Michael Kappeler)
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addresses guests after accepting a Freedom Award on behalf of the American people from former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger during a gala banquet of the Atlantic Council in Berlin. Clinton on Sunday used the anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall as a rallying cry for a new US-European push to free those oppressed by religious extremism. (AFP/John Macdougall)
The irony is thick with russia and france being joined by GB’s anti-Thatcher and Americas anti-Reagan for this celebration of that which they sought to avoid.
“In a surprise video address beamed into the ceremonies, US President Barack Obama said he still took inspiration from the courage of East Germans who stood up against their oppressive regime. “
Hey I wonder if he will be inspired when the USA stands up to his oppresive regime?
This slimey lizard has to put his face everywhere.
“Few would have foreseen ... that a united Germany would be led by a woman from (the east German state) Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent,”
I shouldn’t be surprised,,,,but he managed to make it about him,,,again.
Yup, no mention of Reagan or Thatcher.
Real classy. jerk.
No, jackass.
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