German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann said on Thursday, Jan 29, that the government had reached agreement with representatives of the eastern state of Saxony to set up a memorial to mark German unity and freedom in Leipzig by 2014 as the country gears up to mark 20 years of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

"We want to take shared responsibility to honor the outstanding contribution of the citizens of East Germany in the peaceful revolution of 1989," Neumann said after the meeting in Berlin.

The federal government will put up five million euros ($6.58 million) to fund the memorial, the minister said.