1-651-509 - Keystone Archives/Heritage Images

Checkpoint between East and West Berlin, Heinrich Heine Strasse, Berlin, Germany. One of the crossing points on the Berlin Wall. The Communist East German authorities erected the Berlin Wall in 1961, separating their zone of the city from West Berlin and preventing movement between the two. According to official figures 133 people were killed by the East Germans trying to cross the wall from east to west before it was dismantled in 1989, but unofficial estimates suggest the figure was at least 200. The dismantling of the wall symbolised the end of the Cold War and paved the way for the reunification of Germany.