WEST BERLIN -- Thousands of people ushered in the new year along the Berlin Wall Sunday, dancing and setting off fireworks as they celebrated the arrival of a decade free of Iron Curtain barriers that divided the city for nearly 30 years.
At the stroke of midnight, the crowd let out a huge roar and a colorful stream of fireworks lit up the sky. Revelers danced on top of the Berlin Wall, spraying the crowd below with champagne, while other celebrating residents embraced and sang songs.
About two dozen people scaled the newly opened Brandenburg Gate and planted a European Community flag alongside a German banner. East German border guards tried to bar all but West Germans from crossing the frontier, but they were overwhelmed by the crowds and soon waved everyone through after glancing at their passports.
'It's a very nice moment for me,' said a West Berliner who identified himself only as Frank. 'Twenty-eight years there was a wall between these two towns... Tomorrow it begins a new time for this town and for Germany and for Europe.'
'We're at a new point,' said Hans, another West Berliner. 'This is a new time and we look toward the future and not behind. And I think it will be a very good future.'
Foreigners also were overcome by the euphoria of the crowds.
'It's just mindblowing,' said Lynn Hurley as she watched fireworks explode above the Brandenburg Gate. 'We didn't expect anything like this.'
'You can't keep the people down,' added James Harmon, another British citizen. 'That's what its all about, human spirit.'
Tens of thousands of people gathered along the Berlin Wall for the celebration, with most packed into the eastern side near the Brandenburg Gate. A large video screen set up on the eastern side of the wall played rock videos, and not far away people lit candles to commemorate those who died in Romania. 'Ceausescu is dead. Germany greets Romania,' a banner said.
The West German daily Express billed the celebration as 'The world's largest party,' saying that after 28 years of division, Berlin would celebrate 'a feast the like of which the world has never seen.'
'The whole town is celebrating a big, big, big party,' said West German Eberhard Auriga, 32, one of the thousands who gathered at the wall Sunday afternoon for the celebrations.
Sausage, beer and coffee vendors set up their stands alongside the wall, where hundreds of people, were chipping away at the concrete.
Earlier, city officials said they expected hundreds of thousands of Berliners, East and West German visitors and foreign tourists to party around the newly opened Brandenburg Gate and along historic boulevards on either side of the wall.
'Everyone is going to be here from East and West Berlin just to celebrate,' said Beth Sarachman, 23, from Los Angeles. 'They have a lot to celebrate,' she said as she strolled by the Checkpoint Charlie border crossing.
For the first time in 28 years, the celebrations were not overshadowed by the Iron Curtain, and huge crowds crossed through the Berlin Wall, which was opened Nov. 9.
Many residents in both East and West Berlin said planned to join revelers on the opposite side of the city -- a freedom they had been denied since the Aug. 13, 1961, erection of the wall.
Mike Smith, a U.S. Army captain stationed in West Berlin, was among the crowd at the wall. Standing at the same spot in the past had been 'a somber experience,' he said.
'But now it's going to be a big party,' he added with a smile.
Fireworks manufacturers in West Germany believe a good deal of the $60 million worth of goods they have sold in the past few days will go up in smoke above the wall.
Hotel rooms have been booked for weeks and retailers in West Berlin reported massive sales of champagne and bubbly.
The West German ZDF television station broadcast much of the 'Berlin bash' live. David Hasselhoff, former star of the U.S. television series Knight Rider, sang 'Looking for Freedom' at the Brandenburg Gate, which was reopened in a moving ceremony Dec. 22.
Also at the historic gate, the U.S.-based Millenium Society hosted a 'Ball at the Wall,' for which the 6,000 invited guests were asked to bring a cash donation, a hammer and a chisel -- presumably to chip away at the wall.
The charitable organization, chaired by U.S. presidential speechwriter Edward E. McNally, organizes annual New Year parties to raise money for the United World Colleges, a scholarship program headed by Britain's Prince Charles.
On New Year's Day, celebrations will continue with a 4-mile run, the first across the divided city since Soviet-backed East German troops built the wall.
The mayors of both East and West Berlin announced they will be among the runners crossing through the Brandenburg gate -- a move reflecting the new spirit that pervaded the city since the wall was first breached in November.
