For 28 years, it stood as a symbol of both the division of Europe and the hardline regime of Erich Honecker. Although no one could have predicted the extraordinary events that rocked East Germany ...

With the Iron Curtain still dividing Europe, the Wall remained an oppressive physical (and psychological) presence in the mid-80s and, as late as January ’89, GDR leader Erich Honecker warned it ...

Erich Honecker, General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party in East Germany from 3 May 1971 to 18 October 1989, and Yasser Arafat, 10 March 1982. Photo by Rainer Mittelstädt. Wikipedia.

Built on the orders of East German communist politician Erich Honecker to stem the mass emigration of Germans from East Berlin to West Berlin, the Berlin Wall was a heavily guarded barrier that ...