Highlighting Berlin's long and painful division, 8,000 illuminated balloons will light the course of the old East-West border to mark 25 years since the fall of the Wall, organisers said Monday. The inflated balloons, fixed to the ground with ropes to resemble lamps, will mark a 15-kilometre (9.3-mile) stretch of the Wall's route for three nights leading up to November 9.
That day in 1989, when East Germans peacefully breached the detested concrete barrier, heralded the end of 28 years of the Cold War symbol that spliced through Berlin. Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit said at the project's presentation that the day the Wall fell had been special not only for Berlin, Germany and Europe but for the whole world.