Angela Merkel has paid tribute to the at least 136 people who were killed or died at the Berlin Wall, most of them trying to escape the former communist East Germany.
The German Chancellor laid a rose at a remaining section of the Wall which fell exactly 25 years ago.
Merkel, who herself lived in East Germany, has said she remembered tension, fear and excitement in the build-up to November 9 1989, a year in which communist regimes across Eastern Europe collapsed, heralding the end of the Cold War.
In a particularly poignant moment, she lit a candle with the mother of Chris Gueffroy, the last person shot attempting to make the perilous crossing.
In a united Berlin and Germany which many then could barely have imagined, commemorations and celebrations at the Wall’s demise will continue throughout the day.
