Near Brandenburg, the Wall Falls : Berlin: Thousands cheer East German soldiers dismantling the section. Talks on monetary union begin today.

To the cheers of thousands of onlookers, East German army units Monday began dismantling the first major section of the infamous Berlin Wall, a barrier that for nearly three decades symbolized a divided Europe.

Using heavy mechanized equipment, the soldiers began to remove the top portions of the 13-foot-high concrete wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

East German authorities said initial plans call for removing a 1.5-mile stretch of the wall between Brandenburg and the Allied crossing point, Checkpoint Charlie.

“It’s another historic moment in these weeks and months of historic times,” said West Berlin Mayor Walter Momper. “It’s quite clear the city is reunited again. We’re very happy.”

The dismantling operation occured on the eve of talks in East Berlin between the two Germanys on establishing a currency union, viewed as a major step toward reunification. It also came as West German Cabinet ministers aired sharp differences about the future military status of East German territory within a united Germany.

The work to remove a large chunk of the Berlin Wall began just a few yards from a small cross placed near the point where an East German youth was killed trying to flee. Last April, a West Berlin-based human rights group said 189 people are known to have died trying to cross the wall since it was erected in August, 1961.

But Monday, Berliners East and West shared the same celebration. As hundreds sang and shouted on top of the wall, East German soldiers involved in the removal work seemed buoyed by the atmosphere.

“It’s great, it’s fantastic,” said Ralf Luckas, the 23-year-old soldier manning a mechanical digger that lifted the first pieces from the top of the wall.

Added a uniformed East German border guard: “It’s a beautiful feeling after 28 years.”

In some ways, Monday’s action to remove a large section of the wall was more symbolic than substantive. As a political barrier, the wall fell last Nov. 9, and since then numerous new crossing points have been opened. Souvenir hunters have also chipped away so much of the structure that gaping holes now exist in the area around the Brandenburg Gate.

Still, the physical dismantling of the wall is a powerful reminder of just how fast events have moved toward reunification in recent months.

“It still seems hard to grasp that it’s coming down,” commented Dirk Crone, a psychologist from the West German city of Limburg, as he watched with his wife and two daughters.

Earlier statements indicated the wall would be replaced by a 6-foot-high wire mesh fence, although there was no such fencing visible as work began.

With the dizzying pace of political developments in Germany, few of those who watched the beginning of the end of the wall Monday expected any barrier to remain long.

However, with a total length of more than 96 miles, removing the wall completely is expected to take years. It is expected to take several weeks to take down the Brandenburg section alone.

In another step toward unification, East and West German officials are scheduled to meet in East Berlin today to start talks on a monetary union that would introduce one of the world’s strongest currencies, the deutsche mark, into East Germany.

The move has taken on a sense of urgency because it is seen as a way of stabilizing the beleaguered East German economy and instilling badly needed confidence in East Germans, deeply worried about their future. Leaders of both countries hope that a unified currency will help stem the flow of refugees to the West, still running at about 2,000 a day.

“This is of historical significance, not just for Germans in East and West,” East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow told a meeting of the country’s various political groups in East Berlin on Monday.

Speaking at a round-table meeting, Modrow expressed his disappointment that West Germany had failed to provide the $9 billion he had requested to prop up the East German economy, but he said, “I will not go down on my knees for this sum.”

Meanwhile, in Bonn, efforts were made to resolve a rift between West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Defense Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg on the sensitive issue of placing Western forces in what is now East German territory following unification.

Stoltenberg had raised the prospect Friday that West German territorial army forces, which do not come under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization command, might eventually be stationed in areas now part of East Germany, an idea categorically rejected by Genscher.