Germany is marking 35 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall with celebrations under the slogan "Let's preserve freedom!".
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose coalition dramatically fell apart this week, said in a message to the nation that the liberal ideals of 1989 "are not a given".
"A look at our history and at the world around us shows this," added Scholz, whose ruling three-party alliance collapsed the day Donald Trump was re-elected, plunging Germany into political turmoil and leading it to new elections.
9 November 1989 is celebrated as the day the East German dictatorship opened its borders to the West after months of peaceful mass protests, paving the way for German reunification and the collapse of communism.
One Berliner who remembers those momentous events, 75-year-old pensioner Jutta Krueger, told AFP: "It's a pity that everything coincides like this now."
"But we should still really celebrate the fall of the wall," she said, hailing the moment when "freedom has come to all of Germany".
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will kick off events on Saturday at the Berlin Wall Memorial in memory of at least 140 people who died trying to flee the German Democratic Republic (GDR) during the Cold War.
In the evening, a "freedom party" with music and a light show will be held at Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate, the site of the former concrete barrier that has divided the city in two since 1961.
On Sunday 10 November, Russian protest punk band Pussy Riot will perform outside the former headquarters of the Stasi, the feared secret police of the former East Germany.
Pro-democracy activists from around the world have been invited to the commemorative events - among them Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad.
Discussions, performances and a major outdoor art exhibition will mark what Culture Minister Claudia Roth has called "one of the most joyous moments in world history".
Replicas of posters from the 1989 protests will be displayed along four kilometres of the route of the Wall, past the historic Reichstag building and the famous Charlie Checkpoint.
Among the art installations will be thousands of images created by citizens on the theme of "freedom" to highlight the enduring significance of the historic event. | BGNES
