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Fall of the Berlin Wall: See the pieces of the wall spread out across the world

Sunday marks 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall

Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith
Friday 07 November 2014 11:33 EST
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Former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev is painted kissing his East German counterpart Erich Honecker (R) on a segment of the East Side Gallery, the largest remaining part of the former Berlin Wall in Berlin
Former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev is painted kissing his East German counterpart Erich Honecker (R) on a segment of the East Side Gallery, the largest remaining part of the former Berlin Wall in Berlin

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Sunday marks 25 years since the Berlin Wall was torn down and the division between the east and the west of the city ended.

After nearly 30 years of being split in two Berliners crossed the wall in their droves on 9 November 1989, many becoming reunited with friends and family they have been separated from for years.

Pictures of the period have shown people dancing on top of the wall in celebration, before it was torn down over a period of weeks.

The original wall was constructed overnight on 13 August 1961. This first version was a 96 mile barbed wire fence which was replaced with the concrete wall in 1965.

The fourth-generation wall, or Border Wall, was constructed in 1975, made from 45,000 separate sections of reinforced concrete, each 12 ft high and 3.9 ft wide.

These are the most recognisable pieces of the wall and are the most common parts of the wall to have been transported to different areas of the world. Pieces of the Berlin Wall can be found in museums, outside government buildings and memorial areas, covered in meaningful artwork.

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