Berlin  - Germany looked back on 60 years of its history on Friday, as the country marked the anniversary of its post-war constitution.

The nation's political elite attended an act of state at a Berlin concert hall ahead of a day-long public festival near the landmark Brandenburg Gate on Saturday.

Friday's ceremonies began with an ecumenical church service. "A new democratic community has arisen from the ruins of a dictatorship," Bishop Wolfgang Huber, head of Germany's Protestant Church Council, said in his sermon.

The service at Berlin Cathedral was attended by President Horst Koehler, Chancellor Angela Merkel and other prominent figures.

Modern Germany began as a divided nation born out of the rubble of World War II. On May 23, 1949, the West German Constitution was proclaimed, laying the foundation for West Germany's federal republic.

Since unification with Communist East Germany in 1990, the constitution or "basic law" has applied to the whole of the country.

Bishop Huber said the country's progress over the past six decades was nothing short of a miracle.

Mindful of the mistakes of its Nazi past and under the watchful eye of the western Allied powers, Germany has risen to become one of the world's most respected and prosperous nations and a pillar of the European Union.

Over the decades, Germany has spawned an economic miracle, survived the uncertainty of the Cold War and was reunited with its eastern part in a historic moment celebrated across the Western world.

The post-war economic boom prompted a wave of immigration that laid the foundation for a new multicultural identity. Meanwhile, Jewish life has resurfaced, and ethnic Jews from Russia and Eastern Europe have been invited to help rebuild a Jewish community in Germany.

On Saturday, the actual day of the anniversary, the people will have a chance to celebrate at a huge party along the avenue leading to the Brandenburg Gate.

On the same day, a new president will also be elected by the Federal Assembly, a body of 1,224 legislators and ordinary citizens whose sole job it is to choose the head of state.

Koehler, a conservative, is seeking a second term. Three other candidates are also in the race, among them Gesine Schwan, a professor backed by the centre-left Social Democrats.(dpa)