Sixty years ago today the Walter Ulbricht government in East Berlin began the building of the Berlin Wall.
The Government of the German Democratic Republic referred to it as Antifaschistischer Schutzwall - an antifascist protection wall. And the mayor of West Berlin Willy Brandt called it the Wall of Shame.
The Wall came down on November 9, 1989 and its destruction came about by more or less an accident.
At another-wise boring press conference in East Berlin Günter Schabowski when answering a question referred to his notes and said that East Germans could leave the country with immediate effect.
The news travelled fast. East Berliners headed for the border crossing points. At 11.30pm Harald Jäger, the man in charge on the night at Bornholmer Straße, having hesitated for some time and having made several attempts to find out what to do, instructed his NVA border troops to hold their fire and opened the barriers.
The Wall was no more.
On 3 October 1990 Germany was united or was it reunited. A thorny issue.
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