Brandenburg Gate on 3 October 2002 following extensive refurbishment, for the 12th anniversary of German reunification. Brandenburg Gate became the main venue for the 20th-anniversary celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall or "Festival of Freedom" on the evening of 9 November 2009. The high point of the celebrations was when over 1000 colorfully designed foam domino tiles, each over tall, were lined up along the route of the former wall through the city centre. The domino "wall" was then toppled in stages converging here. The Brandenburg Gate is now again closed to vehicle traffic, and much of Pariser Platz has
Brandenburg Gate of Beethoven at the then newly opened Brandenburg Gate. In the concluding choral movement of the symphony, the famous "Ode to Joy", the word "Freude" ("Joy") was replaced with "Freiheit" ("Freedom") to celebrate the fall of the Wall and the imminent reunification of Germany. On 2–3 October 1990, the Gate was the scene of the official ceremony to mark the reunification of Germany. At the stroke of midnight on 3 October, the black-red-gold flag of West Germany—now the flag of a reunified Germany—was raised over the Gate. On 12 July 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton spoke at the Gate about