Some 200, 000 Germans gathered at the Brandenburg Gate in a show of sympathy, some holding small American flags, others holding little figurines of doves -- the symbol of peace.

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Which is why, on 26 November - 50 years on - we, the German survivors, will march, waddle, limp or roll in wheelchairs from the Brandenburg Gate to the Federal Chancellery in Berlin.

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Welcomed by about 1, 000 well-wishers, a military band and tri-service guard of honour, the Queen was given a porcelain model of the Brandenburg Gate and the duke a wristwatch by President Kohler and his wife, Eva Luise.

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Even many Germans who back a Holocaust memorial in principle question the form it is most likely to take a labyrinth of some 2, 500 concrete pillars spreading across a plot of 20, 000 square metres between the Brandenburg Gate and the (unmarked) site of Hitler's bunker.

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In July he flew to Europe on a plane that looked remarkably like Air Force One and delivered a public address to hundreds of thousands of swooning Germans (his plans to give his speech at the Brandenburg Gate were eventually foiled, so he had to make do with a lesser monument).

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He chose a spot near the famed Brandenburg Gate, so he's getting questions about history.

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Revellers in the city centre greeted the new year by eating 12 grapes in time with the chimes at Madrid's central Puerta del Sol clock in a national tradition, while hundreds of thousands partied in Berlin to live music in the landmark Brandenburg Gate.

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Meanwhile, on the roads around Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, Russia's defending champion Olga Kaniskina won the women's 20km walk title, beating Ireland's Olive Loughnane.

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