On August 13, 1961, GDR or East Germany began to build a barbed wire and concrete “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.And the period during which block the border is expected to have died from escaping over the wall to 206 people before the walls are breaking down on November 9, 1989, which is longer than 28 years.