Germany marks an important, great day in its new history. One of the European Union's leading countries celebrates the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a symbol of the Cold War's division of the country into a communist east and capitalist west.
The concrete wall, which stretched for 155 kilometers in length and constituted a border between East and West Germany, was built in 1961. Its function, apart from the territorial separation of the two, ideologically opposing blocks, was also to prevent the escape of the labor force and political dissenters.
The wall, besides the physical division of Berlin, also closed the western part of the city. It is estimated that 140 people including border guards were killed while trying to escape through the wall.
