22 Years Ago

Twenty-two years ago, on November 9 & 10, 1989, the Berlin Wall came down.

It was built at the height of the cold war in 1961 by the Soviet Union’s government in East Germany to stop people from traveling from East to West Berlin. The wall itself went through several different forms, but when it came down in 1989 it included a 12 foot concrete wall topped with barbed wire, a 300-foot space filled with anti-vehicle trenches and minefields known as the “Death Zone”, was patrolled by soldiers patrolling with dogs, massive light systems, and watchtowers.

It’s estimated that more than 171 people lost their lives trying to cross the wall to escape East Germany. Over the years the wall became a symbol of the failures of communism and in 1987, President Reagan challenged Gorbachev to come to the wall, open the gates, and tear it down.