Blowing Whistles and brandishing banners with slogans like "Berlin is selling himself and his story", about 200 people gathered at a section of painted 1.3 miles of the wall known as the East Side Gallery, adorned with works by artists such as Keith Haring and Gerald Scarfe.
Developers plan to build luxury apartments close to the outdoor gallery but manufacturers have had to stop tearing down the wall on Friday due to protests and local police said they had removed their machines in the late afternoon.
"We need this part of the wall because it symbolizes the way we managed to defeat the dictatorship peacefully, with its paintings by international artists," said Peter Flenz, a retired civil servant in 72 years.
The Communist authorities in the former East Germany built the wall in 1961 as an "anti-fascist protection barrier". The concrete structure high 3.6 metres divided Berlin for 28 years and an estimated 1,000 East Germans were killed trying to flee to the West after its construction.
Most of the wall was pulled down or chiselled away after it was hacked on November 9, 1989, when crowds of ecstatic East and West Germans climb through the checkpoint and toward the wall, hacking bits off it and dancing over the structure which for so long had symbolized their division.
The East Side Gallery, on the banks of the river Spree, was declared a historical monument in 1992 and since then has become one of the main tourist attractions of Berlin.
A section presents a giant image of East German leader Erich Honecker and his Soviet counterpart Leonid Brezhnev kissing on the lips.
From Friday, rounded top of the wall had been removed from around a stretch of 20 meters, a section that was part of a mural depicting the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin was missing and another part, attached to a crane, was ready to be felled.
Berliners appealed to the city's Mayor, Klaus Wowereit, to stop the demolition.
"Mr Wowereit, tear down this wall," said a message scrawled on the wall in a reference to a 1987 speech by then United States President Ronald Reagan, who begged Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union to "tear down this wall!".
Protesters jostled with police as they tried to enter a full-size replica of the missing section of painted wall the gap.
"It is crucial that we keep this memorial, so that history may not repeat itself," said Lisa Baur, 29, a graphic designer. "It is also important from an economic point of view because a lot of tourists come here to see it."
Critics said the demolition and development of luxury apartments were symptoms of what they see as the gentrification of Berlin, a city that once branded Wowereit "poor but sexy".
Investment group headquartered in Berlin living Bauhaus has permission to build a 14-story condominium featuring luxury floor fronts-glass ceiling behind the outdoor Gallery.
"Berlin attracts a lot of people from all over the world. With living standards we are accepting applications from flat hunters, owners and investors for affordable living space, "Living Bauhaus said in a statement.
The group said an escape from a riverside stretch of the Park was cut through the East Side Gallery for security reasons and would be built even without their condominium. Planning authorities were unavailable for comment.
(Reported by Michelle Martin; Editing by Stephen Brown and Rosalind Russell)
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