IN PHOTOS: 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall

Germany on Sunday celebrates the 25th anniversary of the night the Berlin Wall fell, a pivotal moment in the collapse of communism and the start of the country’s emergence as the major power at the heart of Europe.

A 15-kilometre chain of lighted balloons along the former border will be released into the air early Sunday evening – around the time on Nov. 9, 1989 when a garbled announcement by a senior communist official set off the chain of events that brought down the Cold War’s most potent symbol.

Here are some scenes from the anniversary as well as from the night the Wall fell.

— With files from the Associated Press