German Chancellor Angela Merkel, flanked by a team of world politicians, stepped through an illuminated Brandenburg Gate to the tunes of "Wind of Change," the Scorpions anthem that signals the transformation that gripped Europe two decades ago.

"This day, the 9th of November, is a truly joyous day in the history of Germany," Merkel said, ignoring the constant rain over Berlin. "Today, 20 years ago, the wall opened. The gate to freedom was opened, a seemingly unbreachable gate."

East Germany built the 96-mile wall on Aug. 13, 1961, to encircle East Berlin and stop people from fleeing into the West. It went on to stand for nearly three decades to divide a city and a country in half.

In the late 1980s, democracy movements in Poland and the Czech Republic sparked similar protests in East Germany that would culminate in the fall of the wall.

Merkel, who was 35 in late 1989 and afterwards entered politics, called the event "one of the happiest moments in my life."

U.S. President Barack Obama said in a video message introduced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the anniversary sends a message of hope to those who "believe, even in the face of cynicism and doubt and oppression, that walls can truly come down."

He added that "there could be no clearer rebuke of tyranny, there could be no stronger affirmation of freedom" than the sight of people tearing down the wall.

Earlier that day, Merkel, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and former Polish President Lech Walesa had walked across the border checkpoint that was the first to open its gates on that fateful evening, Nov. 9, 1989 -- some 30 minutes before midnight.

Berliners had flocked to the wall after Politburo Member Guenter Schabowski in a news conference announced that the SED party had lifted restrictions on free travel. Schabowski, in a historic error, announced that the new travel rules came into effect "immediately."

Hundreds of thousands of Berliners stormed to the many border checkpoints in Berlin and demanded that they be let into the western half of the city. The border guards had not been informed about the new regulations but opened the valves a few hours later, overwhelmed by the masses of people.

The 9th of November was preceded by massive pro-democracy demonstrations that had weakened and would ultimately bring down the communist leadership.

"The world is proud of you," British Premier Gordon Brown told the thousands of Berliners gathered before the gate. "You toppled the wall, you changed the world."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the fall of the wall paved the way for more peace in Europe.

"The wall did not only divide a country, it divided all of Europe," he said. "Here in Berlin we all hope that the era of confrontation is a thing of the past."

Despite the rain and cold temperatures, thousands of people flocked to the open-air party in front of the Brandenburg Gate. They were watching as Polish civil rights hero Walesa together with Miklos Nemeth, the former Hungarian leader who opened his country's borders to the West, started a chain reaction to topple 1,000 hand-painted dominos to symbolize the fall of the iron curtain in Europe.

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