A property developer removed more of the Berlin Wall on Wednesday in a surprise dawn move amid a bitter running protest over the dismantling of the once-detested Cold War division. Four segments were taken down from around 5:00 am (0400 GMT) from the Wall's longest surviving stretch, creating a gap of more than six metres (20 feet). But the property company said it was only a temporary measure. Some 250 police were dispatched to the site.

US singer and actor David Hasselhoff returned Sunday to the city where he symbolically sang for freedom in front of half a million people after the fall of the detested Berlin Wall in 1989. But this time the "Baywatch" and "Knightrider" star was in the German capital to lend star power backing to protesters of plans to remove part of the Wall's longest surviving stretch. "I've come to lend my support because I believe this is a piece of history," the 60-year-old told a crowd of several thousand who turned out under unseasonably chilly but blues skies.

Angry demonstrators rallied in front of the Berlin Wall's longest remaining stretch on Friday as a crane dismantled a section of the once-loathed symbol of oppression to make way for new flats. Police grimly stood between about 200 protestors, some brandishing placards, jeering and shouting, and the Wall after a crane had removed one concrete panel making up the 1.3-kilometre (nearly one mile) stretch, known as the East Side Gallery.