German leaders have gathered for a church service to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The ceremony was held in the former East Berlin.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is leading today’s commemorations.

She said Germany remains marred by division 20 years after the fall of the  Wall with unity still incomplete.

Merkel – reunited Germany’s first leader to grow up in the communist east – started the day with President Horst Koehler and other leaders at a prayer service at a former East Berlin church that was a rallying point for opposition activists in 1989.

Guests include Gordon Brown and Hillary Clinton.

Sir Bob Geldof is also there and led a tribute to honour former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

He says the fall of the wall had a huge impact.

“You think about it as the unification of your country, I think it was the liberatrion of Europe” he said.

East Germany’s fortified border crumbled on the evening of November 9 1989 after 28 years holding in the country’s citizens – a pivotal moment in the collapse of communism in Europe that followed a confused announcement by a senior official.

At the end of a plodding news conference, Politburo spokesman Guenter Schabowski off-handedly said East Germany was lifting restrictions on travel across its border with West Germany.

Pressed on when the regulation would take effect, he looked down at his notes and stammered: “As far as I know, this enters into force… this is immediately, without delay.” Schabowski has said he did not know that the change was not supposed to be announced until the following morning.

East Berliners streamed toward border crossings. Facing huge crowds and lacking instructions, border guards opened the gates – and the wall was on its way into history.

Chancellor Merkel said she was among the East Germans who, hearing Schabowski’s words, thought “something might happen on the evening of November 9.” Like many others, she made her way across. “We were speechless and happy,” the 55-year-old recalled in an interview with ARD television.

Music from Bon Jovi and Beethoven was to recall the joy of the border’s opening, which led to German reunification less than a year later and the swift demolition of most of the wall – which snaked around West Berlin, a capitalist enclave deep inside East Germany, for 96 miles.

Memorials also were planned to the 136 people killed trying to cross the border. Candles were to be lit and 1,000 towering plastic foam dominoes were placed along the wall’s route to be tipped over.