World leaders mark fall of Berlin Wall with warning about democracy: ‘We must not succumb to the populists’

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The city’s transport, telecommunications and banking infrastructure strained under the weight of hundreds of thousands of east Germans pouring into West Berlin to collect their 100 deutschmarks in “greeting money” from the West Germans, see the sights they had long been denied unless they were retirees or communist party elite, and perhaps purchase goods they were long denied, like bananas. “Everywhere where the wall once brought despair and death, today thrives the life of Berlin,” said Michael Muller, mayor of Berlin, during the commemoration ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate. “Berlin is connected to the whole world, it shines to the whole world as a city of freedom.” open image in gallery Visitors attend the celebrations at the Brandenburg Gate In his speech, Muller also recalled 9 November 1938, the day Nazis launched a pogrom against Jewish businesses and civic culture throughout Germany in what came to be known as Kristallnacht, calling it “one of the most horrible days of our history”. We in Berlin know that we have the power to do that.” German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier described 9 November as “an ambivalent day, of light and shadow”, a moment of celebration 30 years ago, but also a day 81 years ago of a “fall into barbarism, of burning synagogues and the beginning of the hunting and murder of the Jews”.