The Berlin Wall

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Berlin’s turbulent 20th century . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

East German leader Willi Stoph greets West German chancellor Willy Brandt at Erfurt. (Getty images)

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A panel of eyewitnesses recall their memories of the divided city and the dramatic events of November 1989. (Image by Getty Images)

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Berlin Wall

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c1962: Military personnel in a car pass through the US Army's Checkpoint Charlie on the Berlin Wall. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

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Setting a trap: East German soldiers construct the Berlin Wall, 13 August 1961. The barrier was an attempt to stop the flood of Germans fleeing from east to west – yet, as scores of audacious escape bids attest, it didn't entirely succeed. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

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The famous Checkpoint Charlie crossing point between East and West Berlin, June 1968 (Photo by AFP/Getty Images)

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East Germans crowd around and on the Berlin Wall the day after the gates opened for free movement in 1989

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A ‘Trabi’ – the classic East German Trabant 601 car

The cost of unity: Ian Kershaw on the fall of the Berlin Wall

A man attacks the Berlin Wall with a pickaxe on the night of November 9th, 1989 as news spread rapidly that the East German Government would now start granting exit visas to anyone who wanted to go to the West. The announcement was misinterpreted as meaning the border was now open and East German border guards were unable to stop the rush of people to the Wall. Within hours people were smashing sections of the Wall with their own hand tools and these first cracks in the Wall led to the complete opening of the border within days. (Photo by robert wallis/Corbis via Getty Images)

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A new career in a new town: The image of David Bowie used for the cover of “Heroes”, the musician’s 1977 Berlin-recorded album. The cover photo was inspired by a painting by German artist Erich Heckel, whose subject strikes a similar pose. (Image by Getty Images)

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Children at the Berlin Wall on Sebastianstrasse, Berlin - Kreuzberg - in around 1964. (Photo by Lehnartz/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

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