Huge crowds celebrate German unity

People gather in front of the Brandenburg Gate on Tuesday in Berlin, Germany, to mark the 10th anniversary of the German reunification

DRESDEN, Germany -- Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets on Tuesday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of German reunification.

Huge crowds danced where the Berlin wall once stood while in the eastern city of Dresden, political leaders from home and abroad hailed the end of the Cold War partition as a boon for all Europe.

"The reunification of Germany opened the way for the unity of our entire continent," French President Jacques Chirac told an audience that included several east European leaders and the U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

IN-DEPTH New Germany: Prosperity and Pain   • Overview   • View from Berlin   • Disillusionment   • Where is the Wall?   • At-a-glance   • Timeline   • Key players   • Messageboard  VIDEO The DDR's former prime minister, Lothar de Maiziere speaks about the reunification Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     MESSAGE BOARD Germany today

"Today Germany celebrates its unity. With her, all Europe rejoices in coming together again," added Chirac, pledging that France would use its leadership of the European Union to clinch reforms aimed at extending the EU beyond the old Iron Curtain.

He won full endorsement from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Germany, whose aggression led to the division of Europe after World War II, had a special duty, Schroeder said, to turn from its own reunification to that of the whole continent.

"EU enlargement ... is a consequence of (German) unity," he said. "It is an obligation upon us."

Yet despite the turnout of senior political figures, the man who personified reunification, Helmut Kohl, was absent from the ceremonies.

Germany's former chancellor dominated celebrations at Berlin's landmarks 10 years ago. Now embroiled in a scandal over funding for his Christian Democrat Party, Kohl was absent from the anniversary gathering, having been told he would not be invited to speak.

Now, battling to assert his place in history, Kohl has bitterly attacked his successors, including Schroeder, for resisting reunification 10 years ago.

But there was something of an air of reconciliation in Dresden.

Janette Pannek, left, and Stephanie Rimark, wear dresses showing the Berlin landmarks Television tower, and Brandenburg Gate during the celebrations

President Rau, the Social Democrat head of state, said: "He is not taking part in our festivities today. But beyond all the current arguments I would like to stress nothing can diminish Helmut Kohl's service to German unification."

Chirac agreed. "Helmut Kohl...will go down in history as a great German and a great European," he said, echoing many of the speakers.

It was Kohl's cultivation of friendships with leaders such as then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev that convinced the wartime Allies to let Germany reunite, only 11 months after the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989.

But Schroeder pointedly made no mention of his predecessor, heaping his praise on the courage of the east German people.

Dignitaries from nine countries joined ordinary Germans to celebrate 10 years as one nation in Dresden.

Tens of thousands of people spilled on to the streets of the city, which was destroyed by bombing in World War II but is now capital of one of the east's most dynamic regions, Saxony.

And there were huge crowds at a concert in Berlin around the Reichstag parliament and the Brandenburg Gate, once on the Berlin Wall.

The celebrations were more subdued than those last year marking the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. And the festive mood was overshadowed by neo-nazi attacks on Jewish sites.

A synagogue in the western city of Duesseldorf was firebombed overnight on Monday and vandals daubed swastikas on a memorial at the site of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Schroeder condemned the violence as an aberration.

But Michel Friedman, vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, condemned the attacks as evidence "that the threat of right-wing violence is a problem for all of Germany."

He said: "Ten years after reunification anti-Semitism and neo-nazis have reunited."

The leader of Germany's Jews was outraged. "We urgently need a sign from the German people that they don't want what these individuals are doing," Paul Spiegel said.

After 10 years, east and west Germans are still surprised to find they are different peoples in many respects. Easterners are poorer and Westerners grumble about the level of subsidies.

"It's not the same country. I wouldn't want to live here," said Annabelle Stamp, a west Berliner visiting Dresden.

Many Easterners, who make up less than a fifth of the population, complain their problems are misunderstood.

"Our lives were much more secure before," lamented communist pensioner Gerhard Schoenfuss, 65. "We got tricked by the West."

Reuters contributed to this report.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Decade of German unity met by division
Berlin marks the day the Wall came tumbling down
Ex-East Germans nostalgic for communism's simpler life

Federal Republic of Germany
Berlin Wall 1961

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.