The Berlin Wall around the world

The Berlin Wall around the world

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For nearly three decades, the Berlin Wall divided West Berlin from the communist East, making it the most potent symbol of the Cold War. At least 136 people were killed or died at the wall, most of them while trying to escape.

To mark the 25th anniversary of its fall, Reuters photographers captured images of segments of the wall which are kept as monuments in many countries from Taiwan to South Africa and Costa Rica.

. BERLIN, Germany. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/Files

East and West Berliners hug each other after the opening of the East German border was announced.

On November 9, 1989, following huge protests in East Berlin, the wall was breached and thousands of people poured into the West.

Momentous images of emotional Germans from the East surging through the newly opened border stunned the world.

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Archive footage shows the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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A piece of the Berlin Wall, which has been on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum since 1990, is seen in Simi Valley.
. SIMI VALLEY, United States. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

A piece of the Berlin Wall, which has been on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum since 1990, is seen in Simi Valley.

A piece of the Berlin Wall is displayed at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California.
. YORBA LINDA, United States. Reuters/Mike Blake

A piece of the Berlin Wall is displayed at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California.

A piece of the Berlin Wall stands in a garden at the Alexander Von Humboldt German School in Mexico City.
. MEXICO CITY, Mexico. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

A piece of the Berlin Wall stands in a garden at the Alexander Von Humboldt German School in Mexico City.

Three sections of the Berlin Wall are seen in Plaza Berlin in Guatemala City.
. GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala. REUTERS/Jorge Dan Lopez

Three sections of the Berlin Wall are seen in Plaza Berlin in Guatemala City.

A segment of the Berlin Wall is seen at the Foreign Ministry in San Jose.
. San Jose, Costa Rica. REUTERS/Juan Carlos Ulate

A segment of the Berlin Wall is seen at the Foreign Ministry in San Jose.

A visitor looks at a section of the Berlin Wall painted with a mural of Olympic champion Usain Bolt, at the Jamaica Military Museum and Library in Kingston. The 12-foot section of the wall was given to Bolt in 2009 by Berlin.
. KINGSTON, Jamaica. REUTERS/Gilbert Bellamy

A visitor looks at a section of the Berlin Wall painted with a mural of Olympic champion Usain Bolt, at the Jamaica Military Museum and Library in Kingston. The 12-foot section of the wall was given to Bolt in 2009 by Berlin.

A piece of the Berlin Wall is seen at a garden inside San Martin Palace, the headquarters of Argentina's Foreign Ministry, in Buenos Aires.
. BUENOS AIRES, Argentina. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci

A piece of the Berlin Wall is seen at a garden inside San Martin Palace, the headquarters of Argentina's Foreign Ministry, in Buenos Aires.

Men sit on a bench next to a section of the Berlin Wall outside the Imperial War Museum in London. This section came from near the Brandenburg Gate and depicts graffiti by artist Indiano.
. LONDON, United Kingdom. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

Men sit on a bench next to a section of the Berlin Wall outside the Imperial War Museum in London. This section came from near the Brandenburg Gate and depicts graffiti by artist Indiano.

A section of the Berlin Wall is displayed at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham.
. GILLINGHAM, United Kingdom. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

A section of the Berlin Wall is displayed at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham.

A section of the Berlin Wall is surrounded by a display in the Cold War exhibition at the Royal Air Force Museum in Cosford.
. COSFORD, United Kingdom. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

A section of the Berlin Wall is surrounded by a display in the Cold War exhibition at the Royal Air Force Museum in Cosford.

People walk past a segment of the Berlin Wall at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin.
. BERLIN, Germany. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

People walk past a segment of the Berlin Wall at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin.

A woman walks past a piece of the Berlin Wall, which was from Potsdamer Platz, in a park outside the European Parliament in Brussels.
. BRUSSELS, Belgium. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

A woman walks past a piece of the Berlin Wall, which was from Potsdamer Platz, in a park outside the European Parliament in Brussels.

A man walks near a piece of the Berlin Wall depicting German artist and musician Kiddy Citny in the La Defense business district in Courbevoie. The municipality of Courbevoie bought the piece of wall for 300,000 Deutsche Marks in 1990.
. COURBEVOIE, France. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

A man walks near a piece of the Berlin Wall depicting German artist and musician Kiddy Citny in the La Defense business district in Courbevoie. The municipality of Courbevoie bought the piece of wall for 300,000 Deutsche Marks in 1990.

A woman runs past segments of the Berlin Wall at Berlin Park in Madrid.
. Madrid, Spain. REUTERS/Susana Vera

A woman runs past segments of the Berlin Wall at Berlin Park in Madrid.

A segment of the Berlin Wall is seen in a park in central Sofia.
. Sofia, Bulgaria. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov

A segment of the Berlin Wall is seen in a park in central Sofia.

A piece of the Berlin Wall stands in a park in central Moscow.
. MOSCOW, Russia. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

A piece of the Berlin Wall stands in a park in central Moscow.

A piece of the Berlin Wall is seen in the artists' village of Ein Hod near Haifa in Israel.
. EIN HOD, Israel. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

A piece of the Berlin Wall is seen in the artists' village of Ein Hod near Haifa in Israel.

A section of the Berlin Wall stands in front of St George's Cathedral in Cape Town. The section was presented to former South African president, Nelson Mandela, in the 1990s.
. Cape Town, South Africa. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

A section of the Berlin Wall stands in front of St George's Cathedral in Cape Town. The section was presented to former South African president, Nelson Mandela, in the 1990s.

A woman takes a photograph of her husband in front of part of the Berlin Wall at Berlin Square in Seoul.
. SEOUL, South Korea. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

A woman takes a photograph of her husband in front of part of the Berlin Wall at Berlin Square in Seoul.

A segment of the Berlin Wall stands among trees in Yokohama, south of Tokyo.
. Tokyo, Japan. Reuters/Yuya Shino

A segment of the Berlin Wall stands among trees in Yokohama, south of Tokyo.

A piece of the Berlin Wall is seen in the front yard of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy in Taipei.
. TAIPEI, Taiwan. REUTERS/Pichi Chuang

A piece of the Berlin Wall is seen in the front yard of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy in Taipei.

A child sweeps the floor in front of four pieces of the Berlin Wall at the workshop of sculptor Teguh Ostenrik, who brought four original sections of the Wall to Indonesia in 1990, in Indonesia's West Java province.
. DEPOK, Indonesia. REUTERS/Beawiharta

A child sweeps the floor in front of four pieces of the Berlin Wall at the workshop of sculptor Teguh Ostenrik, who brought four original sections of the Wall to Indonesia in 1990, in Indonesia's West Java province.

A section of the Berlin Wall stands in the car park of the German Club in Canberra, Australia.
. CANBERRA, Australia. REUTERS/David Gray

A section of the Berlin Wall stands in the car park of the German Club in Canberra, Australia.

“The wall? The wall does not exist anymore.”
Fabrizio Bensch, Reuters Photographer

In the middle of a bustling Potsdamer Platz, a young tourist asks me: “The wall. Where is the wall?”

I look at him astonished and almost want to answer: “It’s over there!”

For a moment, that picture wells up in full force: The high concrete walls with the rounded tops, which looked like giant tubes snaking through the city.

The barbed wire, the watch towers. Where I look now, however, there is no eerie silence, no border with a death strip, but the loud sounds of a lively city with traffic horns being honked and crowds of people enjoying daily life.

“The wall? The wall does not exist anymore.” I tell him. He gives me a confused look and I quickly realise I should be saying: “If you continue straight on, then you will find remainders of the wall.” He thanks me and quickly moves in the direction I pointed out along with his companion.

The man’s simple question triggered memories of a completely different time in my hometown. As someone born and raised in Berlin, I only knew “the West” as being surrounded by those winding tubes.

I never imagined that one day the wall could really fall, the border would really be opened. This concrete beast – 3.60 meters tall, 155 kilometers long and wildly coloured with graffiti, at least on the Western side – was not always in sight during the day, but it was always present. You came across it eventually.

Its oppressiveness was just part of life as we knew it, and at the same time, it was unique. So 25 years after the fall of the wall, I decided to track down its remainders across the city, and what these remainders could mean to me as an eyewitness of this part of local and global history.

. TELTOW, Germany. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

Segments of the Berlin Wall for sale stand in a yard in Teltow, south of Berlin.