(Minghui.org) To commemorate the 27th anniversary of the April 25 appeal in Beijing in April 1999, Falun Gong practitioners in Berlin, Germany, held an event at the famous Brandenburg Gate on April 25, 2026. Passersby responded favorably.

It was a sunshiny day, and people passing the Brandenburg Gate were drawn by the soothing music as practitioners demonstrated the exercises. After learning about Falun Gong and the persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), including forced organ harvesting, some passersby signed petitions that urged an end to the brutality. Some were also interested in learning the exercises.

Practitioners’ event at the Brandenburg Gate commemorating the peaceful appeal in Beijing in April 1999

Passersby stopped to watch.

Practitioners demonstrating the exercises

People are interested in Falun Gong.

After dozens of Falun Gong practitioners were arrested in the nearby city of Tianjin in April 1999, about 10,000 practitioners gathered peacefully at the National Appeals Office in Beijing on April 25, 1999. Later that day, practitioners detained in Tianjin were released, and everyone went home. This event was described by media outlets around the world as the largest and most peaceful appeal in the history of Chinese petitions. Three months later, however, the CCP launched the nationwide persecution of Falun Gong that continues to today.

Patrick Keller of Berlin supports Falun Gong practitioners’ efforts to end the persecution.

Patrick Keller, who lives in Berlin, saw Falun Gong practitioners doing the exercises and read their banners. After he read the leaflet a practitioner gave him, he signed the petition calling for an end to the persecution. Surprised to learn about this cruel reality, he repeatedly said, “This persecution must stop immediately.”

This was the first time Keller had ever heard about Falun Gong. He said he hoped the suppression in China would end soon and wished the practitioners success.

Suyana Sandra

Sujana Sundran, a nurse from Munich who was visiting Berlin, and her friend Tia stopped to watch as practitioners did the exercises in front of the Brandenburg Gate. They talked with a practitioner at the information booth for a long time.

Sundran said, “The CCP’s harvesting of organs from Falun Gong practitioners is so cruel. People are people; we all live in the same world. This shouldn’t be happening.” Both she and Tia both signed the petition protesting the persecution.

Ken Håkanson and his wife

Kenn Håkanson from Denmark and his wife signed the petition that called for an end to the suppression of Falun Gong. “The killing, torture, and imprisonment of people in China is horrific; the organ harvesting is even worse,” Mr. Håkanson said. He emphasized that it was illegal and should not be happening. He hopes the international community, including the EU, will do something about it.

Background: What Is the April 25 Appeal?

Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) was first introduced to the public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in Changchun, China, in 1992. The spiritual discipline is now practiced in over 100 countries worldwide. Millions of people have embraced the teachings—which are based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance as well as five gentle exercises—and experienced improved health and well-being.

On April 23 and 24, 1999, police officials in Tianjin, a city near Beijing, assaulted and arrested dozens of practitioners who’d gathered outside a magazine office to discuss errors in a recently-published article attacking Falun Dafa. As word spread of the arrests and more practitioners inquired with officials, they were told they had to take their appeals to Beijing.

The following day, April 25, some 10,000 Falun Dafa practitioners spontaneously gathered at the National Appeals Office in Beijing, as they had been instructed to do by Tianjin officials. The gathering was peaceful and orderly. Several Falun Dafa representatives were called in to meet with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and members of his staff. That evening, the practitioners’ concerns were answered, the arrested practitioners in Tianjin were released, and everyone went home.

Jiang Zemin, former head of the CCP, perceived the spiritual discipline’s growing popularity as a threat to the CCP’s atheistic ideology and issued an order to ban Falun Dafa on July 20, 1999.

Minghui.org has confirmed the deaths of thousands of practitioners due to the persecution over the years, although the actual number is suspected to be much higher. Countless more have been imprisoned and tortured for their faith.

There is concrete evidence that the CCP sanctions the harvesting of organs from detained practitioners, who are murdered to supply the organ transplant industry.