Germany marked the 40th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall today.
The sombre ceremonies were marked by anger at the prospect of the political descendants of East Germany's communists coming to power in the city.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Berlin Mayor Mr Klaus Wowereit and parliamentary speaker Mr Wolfgang Thierse - all of them Social Democrats (SPD) - were met with jeers and whistles at a wreath-laying ceremony at one of the last stretches of the despised wall.
Just before the ceremony, a man who told AFPhe had spent three years in an East German jail snatched a wreath laid in memory of the victims of the wall, ripped it up and threw the pieces into a nearby building site before being arrested after a scuffle with police.
The wreath had been laid at the Bernauer Street memorial by the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), a direct descendant of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) that ruled East Germany for 40 years.
The PDS looks well placed to enter a coalition with the SPD in the Berlin city-state government after elections in October.
In a drizzling rain, about 150 people arrived for the ceremony, many wearing "Victim" signs and carrying placards reading "SPD-PDS: Think of the Deaths at the Wall" and "SPD-PDS: Betrayal of the Victims".
The Berlin Wall fell nearly 12 years ago - on November 9th, 1989.
Since then, Germany has marked the August 13th anniversary with commemorations for the 960 people who were killed trying cross into the West over the Wall or across the border between East and West Germany.
AFP