If it were not for events 25 years ago, Angela Merkel’s political ambitions would never have been realised.

Then she was a 35-year-old scientist in communist East Berlin. The fall of the Berlin Wall united Germany. Communist regimes across Eastern Europe collapsed, heralding the end of the Cold War and it paved the way to the political summit for Merkel.

“This day shows us that the human yearning for freedom cannot be suppressed forever. During that fateful year of 1989, more and more East Germans overcame their fear of state repression and chicanery,” she said on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Wall.

The Chancellor, speaking at a science conference called Falling Walls, added that Germany would always be grateful for the courage of East Germans who took to the streets to protest at the communist dictatorship.