It's one of the greatest symbols of the Cold War. Faced with waves of emigration from East to West, the Communist authorities of the German Democratic Republic (1949-1990) decided to react. On the night of August 12 to 13, 1961, the East German government erected fences and barbed wire around West Berlin. This marked the beginning of the process of building the Berlin Wall, a border that was gradually extended and consolidated.

The lives of an entire population were turned upside down. Thousands of Berliners lost their jobs, in both the East and the West, and thousands of families were separated. Eventually, on the night of November 9, 1989, Berliners non-violently forced open the crossing points between East and West Berlin and put an end to nearly three decades of division in their city.

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Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.