The German parliament Sunday 8 November celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, commemorating the efforts of European civil rights activists which helped end the divide between East and West in Germany and Europe.

"The people east of the Iron Curtain only had their large hearts to set against the tanks, but they still were victorious," former Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, who currently heads the European Parliament said in his address to the legislators.

On Monday 9 November Angela Merkel began the day at a remembrance service in the Gethsemane Church, which had been a centre of the resistance movement against the East German communist state (GDR) in the former East Berlin.

Later, the chancellor is to share a moment of reflection in the Chapel of Reconciliation, built at the site the so-called Death Strip, the forbidden area between the two layers of the Berlin Wall.

Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, will retrace her steps at the former Bornholmer Bridge checkpoint, where she was among the first throngs of joyous people who crossed to West Berlin in 1989.

The chancellor will be joined by key figures from the year, including former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, Poland's former opposition leader and president Lech Walesa, and civil rights activists.

Sources: dpa, pa