25th Anniversary - Deutsche Einheit (Unity)

Although the Berlin Wall came down November of '89, it was not until October 3, 1990 that Germany became one country again. The 25th anniversary celebration of Germany's reunification was held this year; and Frankfurt was selected as the host city.  Of course, its being the 25th anniversary ensured that this would be a very special event to attend.  Festivities began Friday evening and ran through Sunday afternoon.  The Walkers and we ventured out via the trolley
late Saturday morning.  

We headed for the Main (pronounced "mine") River, where booths--mostly beer and wine--lined both sides.  They did, however, have 16 information booths dedicated to the 16 German states.  And the fire boat was on hand for the evening's fireworks...just in case.

We were overwhelmed with this state-of-the-art truck supplying one of the booths.  Note especially the windshield wipers which circle 360 degrees.  Very interesting!

And we got a kick out of seeing a real German "oompah" band...singing in English, no less!

We then headed to the Römer Platz, the old town square.  Crowds were immense! It didn't matter what direction we were headed, a sea of humanity was flowing in all directions!

We took a seat and watched the televised proceedings of the political event being held in the Alte Opera in Frankfurt.  Angela Merkel, as well as the president of the German Parliament, and other leaders spoke.  Honored guests, those still living who were instrumental in Germany's reunification, were seated on the front row.  An amazing dance number was performed as well as a video regarding beautiful Frankfurt.  Elder G and Elder Walker were able to understand a fair portion of the speeches celebrating Germany's freedom and reunification.  You could truly sense the pride of those speakers!

The screen below reads "With God I Overcome Walls."

After listening to the telecast for about an hour, we decided it was time for lunch.  One particular booth was very interesting...wood-grilled salmon!

But we opted for the most typical German lunch...bratwurst!  

Note how the bratwurst is three times the size of the bun!!!

I got a kick, once again, at seeing my name splashed all over the city!!!

We then headed to the Alte Opera.  The speeches were over, and there was a 

reception being held on the balcony for the heads of state, etc.    

Security was very, very present, and I had to leave my bag behind

to get a closer shot of the reception.

 

Freedom

Since many, many stages were set up throughout Frankfurt, 

we could hear music wherever we happened to be.

 Lots of Brezel stands in varieties of plain, chocolate and cheese dotted the landscape.

We stumbled on some local performers who looked great in their native costumes.  Our only regret was that we didn't witness their performance!  That would have been great.

There was even a 1986 two-cylinder East German car on display.

We also saw various displays pointing forward to a celebration in 2017 for the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther and the Reformation.

Since we had plans for having dinner at 5 p.m. in order to watch General Conference live at 6 p.m. with the Walkers and the Bausmans, we headed back to our apartment around 3 p.m.  We figured by leaving that early, we missed all the craziness, which was just fine with us!  The exciting downtown adventure coupled with watching Conference with friends live in Germany

made for a very good day!!!