Germany Marks 30-Year-Old Wall Fall

Today, Germany marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which eventually brought down Communism in eastern Europe and reunified Germany.

Leaders from Germany along with other Europeans who landed to attend the ceremony today in Berlin, recalled the peaceful protests that pressured East Germany's government to allow its citizens free passage to the west on Nov. 9, 1989 .

According to Associated Press, the main commemoration is being held at Bernauer Strasse, where one of the last parts of the Berlin Wall that pided the city for 28 years still stands.

Light installations, concerts and public debates are also being organized throughout the city and other parts of Germany to mark the anniversary.

On her part, Chancellor Angela Merkel, originally grew up at eastern Germany, recalled life in the Communist-ruled German Democratic Republic (GDR). She stated that it was simple and sometimes could be "almost comfortable in a certain way".

Speaking to Sueddeutsche Zeitung ,Merkel  said that western Germany had a "rather stereotypical notion" of the East.

"There are a lot of people who simply had a hard time understanding that there was a difference between the GDR state and the inpidual life of the GDR citizens," she explained.

"I've been asked if you could be happy in the GDR, and if you could laugh. Yes, and myself and many others attached great importance to being able to look (ourselves) in the mirror each day, but we made compromises," she said.

She added: "Many people didn't want to escape every day or get imprisoned. This feeling is difficult to convey."

According to Reuters, Merkel was born in Hamburg in 1954. she moved with her family to East Germany as a baby when her father, Horst Kasner, was offered a job as a pastor there. She grew up in Templin, a small town north of Berlin surrounded by rolling hills and picturesque lakes.

Although her father belonged to a wing of the Protestant church that worked with, not against, the political system, the family was viewed as suspect by the Communist authorities because of its religious role.