The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic, East Germany, starting on 13 August1961, the Wall completely cut off by land West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls,which circumscribed a wide area later known as the `death strip` that contained anti-vehicle trenches and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the `will of the people` in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period. After the fall of the wall in 1989 apart from removal by souvenir hunters and construction clearance, artists painted murals and graffiti and the mile long Eastside Gallery was created
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