Germany

Bonn is one of the oldest cities in Germany. The city celebrated its 2,000th anniversary in 1989, based on the date of its first written mention by the Roman writer Florus in 11 B.C. From a Roman garrison, during the Middle Ages, Bonn developed into a spiritual and trading centre: the current Bonn market was already a market settlement more than 1,000 years ago! Bonn was granted a full municipal charter in 1243, and in the 16th century the electors and archbishops of Cologne chose Bonn as their capital and city of residence. Their magnificent palaces and buildings are still bringing Baroque splendour to the city today. Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770 at Bonngasse 515, which is now house number 20.

Click here for video of East Berlin in 1996

On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark,” between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West. The Berlin Wall stood until November 9, 1989, when the head of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased. That night, ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall. Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself. To this day, the Berlin Wall remains one of the most powerful and enduring symbols of the Cold War.