“Twenty thousand people, Cross Bösebrücke” or... “To paint that love upon a white balloon”
On the 37th anniversary of the release of "Heroes", AFP has reported that Germany will throw a giant street party next month to mark 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall with light shows, Beethoven and a rendition of David Bowie's Cold War hit "Heroes".
Here’s an edited extract from the article.
On-stage talks by former anti-communist dissidents will be part of the festivities to mark the anniversary of November 9, 1989, when people power spelt the death-knell of East Germany.
"With the street festival, we will celebrate the peaceful revolution and the fall of the Wall," government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters on Tuesday. "We will be thinking of the many courageous and determined people whose persistent protests made possible the happy events of November 9, 1989 and, subsequently, German unity."
On that day East German border guards, overwhelmed by large crowds, threw open the gates to West Berlin, allowing free passage through the detested barrier for the first time since it was built in 1961 and spelling the beginning of the end of the Iron Curtain.
To mark the anniversary, British singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel will perform "Heroes", which Bowie recorded at Hansa studio close to the Wall in 1977 when he was living in the then West Berlin.
Celebrations will kick off two days earlier with the launch of an ambitious art project featuring 8,000 illuminated white balloons pegged to the ground along a 15-kilometre (nine-mile) stretch of the Wall's former path.
On November 9, the balloons will be released from their ropes and symbolically set free into the night sky, to the stirring sounds of Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
Berlin city government spokesman Richard Meng predicted "it will be an emotional weekend when Berliners get to celebrate the happiest day in the city's recent history".
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up a Christian pastor's daughter in the East, is set to inaugurate a new permanent exhibition at the Berlin Wall Memorial.
Listen to Bowie’s original Heroes/Helden on the "Heroes" 4-track EP.
For those of you that aren’t familiar with Gabriel’s version of the Bowie classic, he recorded the song in 2010 for his Scratch My Back Album. Listen to it here.
You can read the full AFP news piece here.
FOOTNOTE: Bowie is pictured “standing by the Wall” in 1987 by Denis O'Regan.