* This is part of a series on the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall – and my attempt to document the events of the weekend, where 20 years before, a peaceful revolution brought about a big change which helped to end the cold war, and bring about a new Europe. Many more of the events are in the full flickr set here. *

After the end of the 10 am Commemoration ceremony on Bernauer strasse, I walked over to where a 60 meter strip of the Berlin wall has been preserved. It is located – on one end – behind a huge steel wall that was taller than the Berlin wall itself – with a bit of sand in front to allow you to light a candle and reflect.

From there, when you walked around the corner, the back side (west side) of the 60 meter strip of Berlin wall that had once been a part of the Sophien Friedhof (St. Sophia’s Cemetery) was revealed. Filled between the concrete blocks with roses, it was shocking to see the contrast between the grim grayness of the wall and the brilliance of fresh roses in the rain. Nearly everyone paused, shook their head and seemed to be thinking “what a waste”. A few of the older people – who had been here – could be caught wiping tears away from their eyes as they walked up, touched the wall, the roses, and took a peek through the preserved no-man’s land. Of course, my favorite were the young – the people who were by far – too young to remember – and who, I hope never have to see this happen again.

So, do you want to know what they were all peeking at? In a space, no wider than the width of your thumb, you could look across the “no man’s land” to the opposite side of the wall, and barely see the tops of the buildings on the other side.

I suppose that the view was better from the Berlin Wall Documentation Center’s view stand – but it was too full of people for me to want to climb up:

So, I contented myself with photographing those discovering the wall, and then heading into St. Sophia’s Cemetery – which was partly plowed under to make way for the death strip, and which was directly at my back – over my shoulder. (more on that tomorrow).