Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. Merkel Urges Defense of Freedom on 30th Anniversary of Berlin Wall's Fall Henry Ridgwell BERLIN - Chancellor Angela Merkel led a series of commemorations Saturday in the German capital to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which divided the city during the Cold War until it was breached and torn down on November 9, 1989. Merkel, who grew up in Communist East Germany, said, "The Berlin Wall is gone and that teaches us that no wall that excludes people and restricts freedom is so high or so wide that it cannot be broken through." November 9 also is the anniversary of Kristallnacht, when Jews were attacked across Nazi Germany in 1938 -- a foretaste of the horrors that would follow in the Holocaust. .