Celebrations are being held in Germany to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
More than one million visitors are in Berlin for the festivities. Photo: AFP
Concerts and exhibitions are being staged in the city and Chancellor Angela Merkel will later attend a huge open-air party at the Brandenburg Gate.
White balloons marking a stretch of the wall will be released to symbolise its disappearance.
The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to stop people fleeing from Communist East Germany to the West.
Its fall in 1989 became a powerful symbol of the end of the Cold War.
Chancellor Merkel will be joined for the festivities by former Polish trade union leader Lech Walesa and Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader.
The BBC reports the wall stretched for 155km through Berlin but today only about three kilometres of it still stands.
Within a year of its collapse, Germany - divided after its defeat in World War II - was reunited.
Chancellor Angela Merkel will attend a huge open-air party at the Brandenburg Gate. Photo: AFP
More than a million visitors have descended on Berlin for the weekend of festivities that will culminate later on Sunday at the Brandenburg Gate.
The monument itself was inaccessible during the partition of Germany and is seen as a symbol of the country's reunification.
On Saturday, people posed for photos in front of the few remaining graffiti-daubed slabs of the wall, or read information boards about life under Berlin's 28-year division.
Others admired the art installation of almost 7000 white balloons, pegged to the ground and winding along a 15km stretch of the wall's route.
At the bustling Potsdamer Platz, which was once cut in two by the wall, a small crowd watched archive footage of East German demonstrators chanting: "We are the people."
The celebrations were opened by the Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit where 8000 illuminated balloons were placed along 15km of the former Wall. Photo: AFP
