Berlin Wall | Vibepedia

The Berlin Wall stood as a stark concrete barrier from 1961 to 1989, encircling West Berlin to halt the mass exodus of East Germans fleeing the German Democratic Republic. Erected overnight on August 13, 1961, by order of Walter Ulbricht and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, it evolved into a fortified death strip patrolled by the National People's Army. Its dramatic fall on November 9, 1989, amid protests and Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms, heralded the end of the Cold War and paved the way for German reunification.