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The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting
on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany
and from East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls,
which circumscribed a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches and other defenses.
The Eastern Bloc claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist
elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state
in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection
that marked Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.
In 1989, a series of radical political changes occurred in the Eastern Bloc, associated with
the liberalization of the Eastern Bloc's authoritarian systems and the erosion of political power
in the pro-Soviet governments in nearby Poland and Hungary. After several weeks of civil
unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could
visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the
wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the
next few weeks, a euphoric public and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the wall; the
governments later used industrial equipment to remove most of the rest.
While the Berlin Wall has long been dismantled and much of the grounds it occupied completely
redeveloped, you can still find parts of the wall preserved around Berlin. This does not
refer to very small pieces of the Wall sold by the East German government immediately
after its dismantling, which can be found in various cafes, restaurants and hotels not
only in Berlin, but to actual preserved fragments of the Wall still standing in their original locations.