Lithuania in the News
15th November 2009
A Piece of the Berlin Wall Finds a Home Near Vilnius
The Berlin Wall fragment erected in Europos Parkas.
Photo courtesy lrytas.lt
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 2009, a fragment of the original wall was erected in the “Europos Parkas”, an impressive open air sculpture museum near Vilnius, very near to the geographic centre of Europe. This fragment was a symbolic gift to Vilnius by the German Ambassador to Lithuania together with the Goethe Institute in Vilnius. Similar wall fragments also stand in New York, Paris, Kiev, Hamburg, Cincinnati and Marseille.
The presentation of this wall fragment to Vilnius is a fitting recognition of the significant part that Lithuania played in those turbulent times of twenty years ago. Just over two months before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, a key event was the now historic Baltic Way, with 2 million people holding hands for freedom from Vilnius in Lithuania to Tallinn in Estonia. Three months after the Berlin Wall collapse, Lithuania became the first country within the Soviet Union to declare independence and this in turn was a trigger for the eventual collapse of communism and the break up of the Soviet Union.

Further information: www.lrytas.lt 10/11/09 http://www.europosparkas.lt/