Germany marks fall of Berlin Wall

Germany Sunday marked the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with 8,000 white helium balloons illuminating a more than 14-km line tracing the old border between East and West Germany, media reports said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel attended a service for victims of the communist East German regime, BBC reported, adding that she and other officials placed roses at one of the remaining sections of the wall.

Chancellor Merkel said it was important to think about all those who suffered because of the wall, not only in Germany but throughout Eastern Europe. Merkel grew up in East Germany.

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to stop people fleeing from East Germany to the West.

"The original, infamous wall, a barbed-wire line in the road at first, then a fence, and finally a guarded and fortified concrete partition, appeared almost overnight in August 1961," The Independent reported.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 became a powerful symbol of the end of the Cold War.

The wall stretched for 155 km through Berlin but today only about 3 km of it still stands. Within a year of its collapse, Germany -- divided after its defeat in World War II -- was reunited.

More than a million visitors are in Berlin to mark the anniversary of the fall of the wall. The weekend of festivities will culminate at the historic Brandenburg Gate.