History of Berlin the wall at the Brandenburg Gate in scenes of wild celebration broadcast worldwide. This time no Soviet tanks rolled through Berlin. The wall never closed again, and was soon on its way to demolition, with countless Berliners and tourists wielding hammers and chisels to secure souvenir chunks. On Christmas Day December 25, 1989, the American conductor Leonard Bernstein shared with East and West Berliners and the world his Berlin Celebration Concert in order to celebrate the Fall of the Berlin Wall. "Ode to Joy", which Bernstein had reworded "Ode to Freedom", was performed. After the fall of Communism in Europe,
The Fall of Berlin (film) one of the first colored films made in the Soviet Union. The producers used Agfacolor reels, taken from UFA's studios in Neubabelsberg. Composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who was accused of Formalism during 1948, was called on to compose the score. Vano Muradeli said that his contribution to "The Fall of Berlin" and other Stalinist films was the only thing which saved him from persecution by the establishment. Riley wrote that the film's score, along with "Song of the Forests", "was the closest Shostakhovich came to overt praise for Stalin." One additional piece of music used in "The Fall of Berlin" was