Berlin Wall 25th Anniversary: Berliners Place Flowers In Memory Of Those Killed Trying To Cross It

Berliners have marked the 25th anniversary of their city's reunification by remembering those who did not live to see it.

The cracks in a preserved segment of wall at Bernauer Strasse have been filled with flowers to remember those who were killed trying to cross it before November 9, 1989.

This was when the East German government lifted travel restrictions and thousands of East Berliners had pushed their way past perplexed border guards to celebrate freedom with people in the West.

Between 1961 and 1989, a total of 136 people died trying to cross the wall and escape East Germany, most of them shot dead by East German guards who used deadly force to prevent a breach.

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At the preserved segments of the wall at the city's Bernauer Strasse on Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in the East, said the fall of the wall showed that things could change.

She said: "It was about reclaiming freedom, about being citizens, not subjects.The fall of the Wall has shown us that dreams can come true. Nothing has to stay the way it is, however big the hurdles are."

The city has also marked the line the wall used to run along with a Lichtgrenze - 'light border' - an art installation of light that where helium balloons are being placed - and which will be released along the former line of the wall on Sunday evening.