Photo Gallery Building The Berlin Wall
On Sunday, Aug. 13, 1961, construction of what would become the Berlin Wall began. Bernauer Strasse belonged the French sector of West Berlin, and the windows of houses on the southern side were bricked up by East German border guards. Access to the roof was blocked too. By autumn of that year, the last of these houses had been emptied and the buildings were demolished two years later.
East German leader Walter Ulbricht (R) and his Soviet counterpart Nikita Khrushchev at Schönefeld airport in East Berlin in 1963.
In this photo from August 18, workers build a wall at Potsdamer Platz, under the protection of East German police. Almost all remaining buildings on both sides were cleared, in order to give border guards a clear view. Except for two buildings, Potsdamer Platz -- once a bustling transport center -- was empty.
East German soldiers watch as construction proceeds on the Berlin Wall.
Potsdamer Platz in 1962.
The Wall divided families. In this Aug. 26, 1961 photo, two women in West Berlin wave to family over the Wall.
A memorial to victims of the Wall on Bernauer Strasse.
Peter Fechter was one of the first victims of the Berlin Wall. He famously bled to death in the so-called 'death strip' after being shot by border guards on August 17, 1962.
This year Germany celebrates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. Technically the Wall was guarded for some time after November 9 but this did not stop millions of East Germans from flooding the borders and visiting West Germany, many for the first time in almost three decades.
Today, only a few sections of the Berlin Wall still stand. The section pictured here is at Bernauer Strasse. A section still stands in the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. The wall is covered in murals and paintings by artists from all over the world and has been dubbed the "East Side Gallery."
