London: French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, has posted on social networking site Facebook a photo of himself chipping away at the famous site the night it came down.
The photo, posted on Sunday, shows a younger Sarkozy taking what appears to be a small pickax to the graffiti-covered wall on November 9, 1989.
In a text accompanying the photo, Sarkozy said he arrived in West Berlin on the morning of the 9th and then crossed Checkpoint Charlie to the East, where he chipped at the wall.
In 1989, Sarkozy was 34 and a top official in France's conservative RPR party, the British media reported.
In his post, Sarkozy also recalled families standing next to him, "telling us their feelings, there new ambitions and share their emotions after decades of separation."
"The night continued amid general enthusiasm. The reunion of the German people signalled the end of the Cold War and the start of a period of great liberty in Europe," the posting read.
The Berlin Wall was erected on August 13, 1961, and for 28 years kept East Germans from fleeing to the West. Its fall on November 9, 2009, happened nearly as suddenly as its rise. And, after the Wall came down, East and West Germany reunified into a single German state on October 3, 1990.