무너진지 25년 되는 베를린 장벽: The Berlin Wall, 25 Years After the Fall

This weekend, Germany will observe the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) began erecting the barrier in 1961, building on existing checkpoints, and fortified it over nearly 30 years: The initial waist-high wooden gates gave way to massive concrete structures with buffer zones known as "death strips." The Berlin Wall was intended to halt the steady stream of defections from the Eastern Bloc; during its existence, only about 5,000 people managed to cross over, escaping into West Berlin. More than 100 are believed to have been killed in the attempt, most shot by East German border guards. In 1989, waves of protest in East Berlin and a flood of defections through neighboring Hungary and Czechoslovakia led the government to finally allow free passage across the border. West German citizens swarmed the wall, pulling parts of it down with hammers and machinery, an act that set the stage for Germany's reunification.                                                               November 4, 2014

West Berlin citizens hold a vigil atop the Berlin Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate on November 10, 1989, the day after the East German government opened the border between East and West Berlin. (Reuters/David Brauchli) 

On August 13, 1961, East Germany closed its borders with the west. Here, East German soldiers set up barbed wire barricades at the border separating East and West Berlin. West Berlin citizens watch the work. (AP Photo)

A young East Berliner erects a concrete wall that was later topped by barbed wire at a sector border in the divided city August 18, 1961. East German police stand guard in background as another worker mixed cement. (AP Photo) 

Tracks of the Berlin elevated railroad stop at the border of American sector of Berlin in this air view on August 26, 1961. Beyond the fence, communist-ruled East Berlin side, the tracks have been removed. (AP Photo/Worth)

Formidable concrete walls took shape at the seven crossing points between East and West Berlin on December 4, 1961. The new walls were seven feet high and five feet thick. Only small passages for traffic were left open. In center of the Bornholmer Bridge (French/Russian sector border), behind steel tank traps, a big sign showing the East German emblem hammer and compass. (AP Photo/Worth)

East German VOPO, a quasi-military border policeman using binoculars, standing guard on one of the bridges linking East and West Berlin, in 1961. (Library of Congress)

Under the eye of a communist "people's policeman", East Berlin workers with a power shovel destroy one of a number of cottages and one-family houses along a sparsely settled stretch of the east-west Berlin boundary in October of 1961. (National Archives) 

A young girl in the Eastern Sector looks through barbed wire into Steinstucken, Berlin, in October of 1961. (National Archives)

Blocking the church - Two East Germans work on a huge 15 foot wall, placing pieces of broken glass on the top to prevent East Berliners from escaping. (AP-Photo/Kreusch)

A refugee runs during an attempt to escape from the East German part of Berlin to West Berlin by climbing over the Berlin Wall on October 16, 1961. (AP Photo)

Picture taken in June 1968 of the Berlin Wall and East Berlin (Soviet sector). (AFP/Getty Images)

Typical of East Berlin measures to halt the escape of refugees to the west are these bricked-up windows in an apartment house along the city's dividing line October 6, 1961. The house, on the South side of Bernauerstrasse, is in East Berlin. (AP Photo)

Aerial view of Berlin border wall, seen in this 1978 picture. (AP Photo) 

East German border guards carry away a refugee who was wounded by East German machine gun fire as he dashed through communist border installations toward the Berlin Wall in 1971. (AP Photo)

East Berlin laborers work on "Death Strip" which communist authorities created on their side of the border in the divided city on October 1, 1961. A double barbed wire fence marks the border, with West Berlin at right. In this view of the area laborers level rubble of houses which, just days before, stood on the site close to the border. Buildings along the 25-mile dividing line were evacuated and razed by Berlin reds to eliminate one means of escape used by East Berliners to jump to the west. (AP Photo)

Dying Peter Fechter is carried away by East German border guards who shot him down when he tried to flee to the west in this August 17, 1962 photo. Fechter was lying 50 minutes in no-man's land before he was taken to a hospital where he died shortly after arrival. (AP Photo

View from top of the old Reichstag building of the Brandenburg Gate, which marks the border in this divided city. The semi-circled wall around the Brandenburg Gate was erected by East German Vopos on November 19, 1961. (AP Photo/Worth) 

The Brandenburg Gate is shrouded in fog as a man looks from a watchtower over the Wall to the Eastern part of the divided city on November 25, 1961. The tower was erected by the West German police to observe the Inner-German border. (AP Photo/Heinrich Sanden Sr.)

East German border guard Conrad Schumann leaps into the French Sector of West Berlin over barbed wire on August 15, 1961. (Peter Leibing/Library of Congress) 

West German construction workers have a chat in West Berlin, April 18, 1967 beside the wall separating the city. (AP Photo/Edwin Reichert)

East German border guards carry away a 50 year old refugee, who was shot three times by East German border police on September 4, 1962, as he dashed through communist border installations and tried to climb the Berlin wall in the cemetery of the Sophien Church. (AP Photo)

A woman and child walk beside a section of the Berlin Wall. (AP Photo) 

Reverend Martin Luther King, American civil rights leader, invited to Berlin by West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt, visits the wall on September 13, 1964, at the border Potsdamer Platz in West Berlin. (AP Photo)

A mass escape of 57 people in October 1964 from East Berlin through a tunnel to the cellar of a former bakery in "Bernauer Street", West Berlin. Picture of the tunnel exit. (AP Photo)

A graffiti-covered section of the wall close to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in 1988. Sign reads: "Attention! You are now leaving West Berlin" (AP Photo)

(1 of 3) Two East Berliners jump across border barriers on the Eastern side of border checkpoint at Chaussee Street in Berlin in April of 1989. They were stopped by gun wielding East German border guards and arrested while trying to escape into West Berlin. People in the foreground, still in East Berlin, wait for permits to visit the West. (AP Photo/Klostermeier)

(2 of 3) Two East Berlin refugees are taken away by border guards after a thwarted escape attempt at Berlin border crossing Chausseestreet, in this April 1989 picture. (AP Photo) 

(3 of 3) An East Berlin border guard, cigarette in mouth, points his pistol to the scene where two East Germans were led away after failing to escape to the west at Berlin border crossing Chausseestrasse. Eyewitnesses reported the guard also fired shots. (AP Photo)

A general view of the overcrowded East Berlin Gethsemane Church on October 12, 1989. About 1,000 East Germans took part in a prayer service here for imprisoned pro-democracy protesters. The church was the focus of protests in the final days of the wall. (AP Photo)

An unidentified East German border guard gestures toward some demonstrators, who who threw bottles on the eastern side of newly-erected barriers at the Checkpoint Charlie crossing point on October 7, 1989. (AP Photo/Rainer Klostermeier)

East and West Berliners mingle as they celebrate in front of a control station on East Berlin territory, on November 10, 1989, during the opening of the borders to the West following the announcement by the East German government that the border to the West would be open. (AP Photo/Jockel Finck) 

East Berliners get helping hands from West Berliners as they climb the Berlin Wall which divided the city since the end of World War II, near the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate) on November 10, 1989. (AP Photo/Jockel Finck) 

A man hammers away at the Berlin Wall on November 12, 1989 as the border barrier between East and West Germany was torn down. (AP Photo/John Gaps III)

West Berliners crowd in front of the Berlin Wall early November 11, 1989 as they watch East German border guards demolishing a section of the wall in order to open a new crossing point between East and West Berlin, near the Potsdamer Square. (Gerard Malie/AFP/Getty Images)

East and West German Police try to contain the crowd of East Berliners flowing through the recent opening made in the Berlin wall at Potsdamer Square, on November 12, 1989. (Patrick Hertzog/AFP/Getty Images)

Decades later, the Berlin Wall is a memory, pieces of it scattered around the world. Here, some original pieces of the wall are displayed for sale at the city of Teltow near Berlin, on November 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

사진으로 본 금주의 세계(10/25-10/31) : Photos of the Week: 10/25-10/31

This week we have Halloween photos, protests in Hungary, Hong Kong, and Israel, the World Beard and Mustache Championship, bridal photos, a mammoth in Moscow, a dinosaur in Leipzig, a photo of the Earth seen from the far side of the Moon, and much more. 

An Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, as it suffered a catastrophic anomaly moments after launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0A on October 28, 2014, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Cygnus spacecraft was filled with about 5,000 pounds of supplies slated for the International Space Station, including science experiments, experiment hardware, spare parts, and crew provisions. (AP Photo/NASA, Joel Kowsky) 

Makeup teacher Carla McKeever poses during preparations for a Zombie Sydney event at the Australasian College Broadway on October 31, 2014 in Sydney, Australia. (Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Thousands of demonstrators hold up their mobile devices as they protest against an Internet tax planned to be introduced by the Hungarian government, in front of the Ministry of National Economy in Budapest, Hungary, on October 26, 2014. Inscription reads: "Mafia government". Following the protests, the government announced it had decided to shelve the proposed tax. (AP Photo/Laszlo Beliczay, MTI)

A Palestinian protester protects his face as he stands in front of burning tires during a demonstration against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel in the village of Kafr Qaddum, near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, on October 26, 2014. (Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP/Getty Images) 

A Competitor takes part in the Tough Mudder London South on October 26, 2014 in Winchester, England. The world-famous Tough Mudder is military style endurance event over 10-12 mile obstacle course designed to test all-around strength, stamina, teamwork, and mental grit. (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images) 

A purple-rumped sunbird pecks at its own image reflected off a window at an office in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on October 27, 2014. (Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images)

A participant in the Just For Men World Beard and Mustache Championship, held on October 25th, 2014 in Portland, Oregon. (Craig Mitchelldyer/AP Images for Just for Men)

Liu Fulong tests his home-made wooden electronic vehicle in Shenyang, Liaoning province, China, on October 30, 2014. The vehicle Liu created weighs more than 200 kilograms, has a top speed of up to 30km/h and the power capacity to travel up to 20km after one charge, according to local media. (Reuters/China Daily)

A jet fighter from the Su-30 SM "Sokoly Rossii" (Falcons of Russia) aerobatic team performs during a show in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, on October 25, 2014. (Reuters/Ilya Naymushin)

San Francisco Giants Pablo Sandoval catches the last out, a pop fly by Kansas City Royals Salvador Perez, during the ninth inning of Game 7 of baseball's World Series on October 29, 2014, in Kansas City, Missouri. The Giants won 3-2 to win the series. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner) 

People react to a mock execution in the Gates of Hell haunted house in Las Vegas on October 27, 2014. The haunted house is billed as an "R-rated haunted attraction" and according to JT Mollner, a managing partner of Freakling Bros that runs the attraction, about one in five groups are so terrified they exit the house early. (AP Photo/John Locher

A bride has her wedding photos taken under the flight path at Songshan airport in Taipei, Taiwan, on October 30, 2014. (AP Photo/Wally Santana) 

A couple pose for wedding pictures outside the Louvre museum in Paris on October 27, 2014. (Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images)

Burning debris sits in the lava flow from Mount Kilauea that is inching closer to the village of Pahoa, Hawaii, on October 29, 2014. The slow-moving river of molten lava from the erupting Kilauea volcano crept over residential and farm property on Hawaii's Big Island on Wednesday after incinerating an outbuilding as it threatened dozens of homes at the edge of the former plantation town. (Reuters/Marco Garcia)

Lifeguards keep vigil as Hindu devotees crowd the banks of the River Ganges to performs rituals at sunset during Chhath Puja festival in Patna, India, on October 29, 2014. On Chhath, an ancient Hindu festival, rituals are performed to thank the Sun God for sustaining life on earth. (AP Photo/Aftab Alam Siddiqui) 

Umbrellas are opened as tens of thousands come to the main protest site one month after the Hong Kong police used tear gas to disperse protesters October 28, 2014 in Hong Kong. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

A Sri Lankan street vendor on the Galle Face Beach in Colombo on October 27, 2014. (Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images)

A worker unloads material on October 27, 2014 n front of the construction site of the new European Council headquarters in Brussels as the European Commission's Berlaymont building reflects onto it. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

A man arranges metal tubes that are part of a Sobia, a diesel heater, prior to winter, in Sidon, Lebanon, on October 25, 2014. (Reuters/Ali Hashisho) 

A Sri Lankan man digs the earth with bare hands at the spot where his house stood, looking for his family members, at the Koslanda tea plantation in Badulla district, about 220 kilometers (140 miles) east of Colombo on October 30, 2014. Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera estimated the number of dead in Wednesday's disaster at the plantation would be fewer than 100, although villagers said the figure could easily exceed 200. The man was away when the mudslide occurred. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Workers transport a model of a dinosaur at the exhibition "World of Dinosaurs" in front of a bucket-wheel excavator in a former lignite surface mining area in Grosspoesna near Leipzig, Germany, on October 29, 2014. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

Dust rises as a herd of camels arrive for the annual cattle fair in Pushkar, in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, on October 28, 2014. Pushkar, located on the banks of Pushkar Lake, is a popular Hindu pilgrimage spot that is also frequented by foreign tourists who come to the town for the annual cattle fair and camel races. (AP Photo/Deepak Sharma) 

A snow leopard is pictured at the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City on October 27, 2014. The snow leopard is native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images)

A Hindu devotee pushes the foam away to make space for other devotees to worship the Sun god Surya in the polluted waters of the river Yamuna during the Hindu religious festival of Chatt Puja in New Delhi on October 30, 2014. (Reuters/Ahmad Masood)

Russian Geographic Society staff members carry the body of a baby mammoth to put on display in Moscow, Russia, on October 28, 2014. The 39,000-year-old baby mammoth is named Yuka, derived from the Yukagir coastline where she was found. Yuka was found four years ago in the Siberian permafrost and was between six and eleven years old when she died. Scientists call Yuka the best preserved mammoth in the history of paleontology. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

Assistants of French chocolate maker Jean-Paul Hevin work on a four-meter (13-foot) tall chocolate King-Kong created by Richard Orlinski in Colombes, near Paris, on the eve of the 20th Salon du Chocolat (Paris Chocolate Show), October 27, 2014. (Reuters/Benoit Tessier)

A couple tours an art installation at an old motel during the "Life is Beautiful" music and art festival on October 25, 2014, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher) 

A model adjusts her dress before walking a runway for a fashion show in Neve Tirza prison in Ramle, Israel, on October 27, 2014. Neve Tirza, Israel's only women's prison, hosted its first fashion show on Monday where models strutted on a red catwalk, showcasing clothes designed and made by inmates. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Zheng Feng, an amateur climber takes wedding pictures with his bride on a cliff in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, China, on October 26, 2014. (Reuters/China Daily)

Smoke rises after a house is blown up during a military operation by Egyptian security forces in the Egyptian city of Rafah, near the border with southern Gaza Strip on October 29, 2014. At least 33 Egyptian security personnel were killed on Friday in the Sinai Peninsula bordering Israel and Gaza, in an attack on a checkpoint that bore the marks of assaults claimed by Egypt's most active militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis. (Reuters/Suhaib Salem)

Hindu women offer prayers as the sun sets over the Arabian Sea during Chhath Puja festival in Mumbai, India, on October 29, 2014. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) 

Mimi Pineda, 15, whose parents are from El Salvador, rides to church in a limousine with her friend Christian Flores during her quinceanera in Santa Clarita, California, on August 23, 2014. (Reuters/Lucy Nicholson)

A model shows a creation at MGPIN 2015 Mao Geping makeup trend launch during China Fashion Week in Beijing on October 27, 2014. (Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon)

The far side of the Moon, with Earth in the background, imaged by China's Chang'e 5-TI satellite on October 28, 2014. (CNSA)

Marcus Cirillo, 5, waves a Canadian flag from a car window as the car leaves following the funeral service for his father, Cpl. Nathan Cirillo in Hamilton, Ontario, on October 28, 2014. Corporal Nathan Cirillo, 24, was one of two soldiers killed in a pair of attacks police said were carried out independently by radical recent converts to Islam at a time when Canada's military is stepping up its involvement in air strikes against Islamic State militants in the Middle East. (Reuters/Chris Wattie)