Protesters push to save Berlin Wall

Associated Press

Protesters gather at the East Side Gallery - a section of the former Berlin Wall - on Sunday. A construction company wants to demolish the landmark to make way for luxury condominiums.

Berlin - Up to 6 000 people on Sunday thronged the area along the longest surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall in a growing protest against plans to knock down a section to make way for new luxury homes.

Under unseasonably blue skies, police said at one point as many as 6 000 people had joined in the demonstration at the 1.3km stretch of Wall, known as the East Side Gallery.

Since 1990, the outdoor gallery has been covered in brightly coloured graffiti murals, including the famous “Fraternal Kiss” depicting Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and his East German counterpart Erich Honecker.

The 3.6-metre-high stretch is a tourist magnet and a must-see for history buffs retracing the dark chapter of Berlin's 28-year-long division who are otherwise hard pressed to find remnants of the Wall to photograph.

But plans for a residential development along the banks of the Spree river as well as providing access to a planned bridge require a 22m segment of the Wall to be dismantled.

Several hundred demonstrators turned out on Friday, when work to remove the Wall temporarily stopped mid-morning after a crane had removed a first panel.

“Money is Making the Wall Fall!” read one banner on Sunday, while slogans directed at Berlin's mayor Klaus Wowereit, such as “Wowereit, the Memorial Stays!” could be heard.

Many are opposed generally to the development of housing projects on the area between the East Side Gallery and the Spree, which once marked the boundary between East and West Berlin.

“I cannot and do not want to tolerate the little that remains standing of the Berlin Wall being damaged,” local Green party politician Hans-Christian Stroebele said.

“If I was (US President Barack) Obama I would say to Wowereit, 'Keep Up This Wall',” a well-known DJ, Dr Motte, founder of the techno Loveparade gathering, told the crowd, alluding to the famous challenge by former US president Ronald Reagan to the Soviet Union's Mikhail Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall!” in 1987.

Thrown up in 1961, the Wall stretched 155km and divided Berlin until 1989, but today only around three kilometres of it still stand. - Sapa-AFP