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Berlin Protesters: `Don't Tear Down This Wall'


Protesters tried to stop demolition of one of the last stretches of the Berlin Wall on Friday, decades after most of the Cold War symbol was torn down.

About 200 people gathered Friday in front of a 1.3-kilometer painted section of the wall known as the East Side Gallery, which is adorned with murals.

As developers began work on a new housing development close to the gallery, protesters brandished placards with slogans such as "Berlin is selling itself and its history." Police said later Friday that efforts to dismantle the wall had been suspended.

The Berlin Wall, built in 1961, divided the city for nearly three decades. It also was the dividing line between West and East Germany.

In a famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate near the wall in 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan urged Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to "Tear down this wall."

Most of it was pulled down or chiseled away in 1989 by ecstatic crowds of East and West Germans who surged through checkpoints and onto the wall.
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