HOW THE COLD WAR THAWED

1949-1961: Some 2.5 million East Germans flee to West Germany, most via Berlin. By August 1961, an average of 2,000 East Germans defect West daily.

August 13, 1961: Overnight the GDR erects 50km of barbed wire and two days later begins the Berlin Wall.

August 22, 1961: Ida Siekmann becomes the first casualty when she jumps out of her apartment window.

June 26, 1963: US President John F Kennedy makes his famous ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ speech and endears himself to sTArK: Interrogation room, top, and cell, right, at Hohenschonhaussen; mail seized by Stasi, right

Germans forever. September 13,

1964: Human-rights icon Martin Luther King’s visit to Berlin – East and West – includes opening a cultural festival with a memorial service for JFK.

June 12, 1987: US President Ronald Reagan makes his impassioned ‘open these gates, tear down this wall’ speech at the Brandenburg Gate to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

June 26, 1989: Cutting of barbed wire between Hungary and Austria sparks an exodus of East Germans to embassies in Prague, Budapest and Warsaw.

October 9, 1989: As part of the growing ‘Peaceful Revolution’ each Monday, 70,000 people march around Leipzig’s citycentre ring road in a candlelit vigil, calling for democracy.

November 9, 1989: Politburo official Gunter Schabowski announces a bill lifting travel restrictions between East and West and is asked when it will come into operation. Clearly at a loss, he replies: ‘As far as I know, immediately.’

November 9, 1989: East Berliners stream to border crossings and bewildered guards allow the floodgates to open. During a night of jubilation the people tear down tracts of the Wall with their bare hands.

June 13, 1990: the dismantling of the Wall by the military begins.

October 3, 1990: Germany is reunified.