2009-11-04 17:16:31 - Deutsche Welle will be broadcasting live worldwide from glass studios at the Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz in German and English on November 9, as well as offering programming specials in Arabic and Spanish.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Deutsche Welle (www.dw-world.de) will be broadcasting 24 hours live on television from Berlin – more than any other station. DW-TV viewers from around the world can tune in on November 9, starting at 8 a.m. (CET) for features, reports and interviews – in English, German, Arabic and Spanish.

“The international interest surrounding this day is phenomenal – hardly any other day in our history is seen so positively,” says DW Director General Erik Bettermann. “For this monumental event, we will provide radio, TV and online coverage that, with regards to depth and scope, will be unique to the world. DW will be the only way that people between Shanghai and Cape Town, Los Angeles and Cairo will be able to experience the German perspective on the events in 1989 – in primetime around the world.”

DW-TV will broadcast from glass studios at the Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz, as well as from the former border crossing at Marienborn, and welcome politicians, civil rights activists, artists, athletes and many others, including Lothar de Maiziere, Rudolf Seiters, Christian Wulff, Angelika Barbe, Richard Schröder, Friedrich Schorlemmer, Günter Nooke, Wolf Biermann, Paul van Dyk, Klaus Meine and Boris Becker.
Reporters will be in Berlin around the clock, going to places like Checkpoint Charlie, Bornholmer Street, the Glienicker Bridge – the Bridge of Spies – and Kurfürstendamm, where people celebrated on the night the Berlin Wall came down.

The special broadcast will also offer the opportunity for people from politics, film, music, art and sport to tell their story of November 9, 1989 – including Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Wolfgang Thierse, Kurt Masur and Armin Mueller-Stahl, Daniel Barenboim, Norbert Bisky, Marius Müller Westernhagen, Wladimir Klitschko and many others. DW will also welcome everyday people from around the world to express what they experienced on the day that the Wall fell.

In its live broadcast, Deutsche Welle will cover German Chancellor Angela Merkel as she walks with Mikhail Gorbachev and Lech Walesa over the so-called “Evil Bridge” on the former border crossing on Bornholmer Street Other highlights include the act of state at Brandenburg Gate and the domino display symbolizing the fall of the Berlin Wall.

“Walled In!” – Award-winning computer animation
With the anniversary of the Berlin Wall in mind, Deutsche Welle and the Berlin Wall institute created a high-definition, computer-animated representation of the area between the two German borders in Berlin and the inner German border. The unique project “Walled In! – The inner German border” can be seen on www.dw-world.de and on YouTube and shows what the Wall was really like. At the end of October, at the “Medientage München” media conference, it received a special prize from the “Eyes and Ears Awards”.

Comprehensive radio and online coverage
Corresponding with the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Deutsche Welle has created a unique offer online. At www.dw-world.de/english/reunification, users can choose from more than 50 different videos as well as articles, audio clips and photo galleries highlighting the history behind the Berlin Wall. It features everything from political movements to pop music and gives a look into the reality that faced Germans in the former East as well as the West. The page will be continually updated as new content becomes available.