Berlin

Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is the country's largest city.
It is the second most populous city and the ninth most populous urban area in the European Union. Located in northeastern Germany
After World War II, the city was divided; East Berlin became the capital of East Germany while West Berlin became a Western enclave, surrounded by the Berlin Wall from 1961-1989.
Berlin is a major center of culture, politics, media, and science in Europe.

Twentieth century

Berlin in ruins after World War II (Potsdamer Platz, 1945).
At the end of World War I in 1918, the Weimar Republic was proclaimed in Berlin. In 1920, the Greater Berlin Act united dozens of suburban cities,
villages, and estates around Berlin into a greatly expanded city at the expense of Brandenburg.
After this expansion, Berlin had a population of around four million.
After the end of the war in Europe in 1945, Berlin received large numbers of refugees from the Eastern provinces.
The sectors of the Western Allies (the United States, the United Kingdom, and France) formed West Berlin, while the Soviet sector formed East Berlin.

Berlin Wall

The tensions between east and west culminated in the construction of the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin and other barriers around
West Berlin by East Germany on 13 August 1961 and were exacerbated by a tank standoff at Checkpoint Charlie on 27 October 1961.
Berlin was completely separated. It was possible for Westerners to pass from one to the other only through strictly controlled checkpoints.
For most Easterners, travel to West Berlin or West Germany was no longer possible.
On 3 October 1990 the two parts of Germany were reunified as the Federal Republic of Germany,
and Berlin became the German capital according to the unification treaty.

Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate (German: Brandenburger Tor) is a former city gate and one of the main symbols of Berlin and Germany.
It is located west of the city center at the intersection of Unter den Linden and Ebertstrasse,
immediately west of the Pariser Platz. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which one formerly entered Berlin.
When the Nazis ascended to power they used the Gate as their symbol. The Gate survived World War II and was one of the few structures standing in the Pariser Platz ruins in 1945
(another being the Academy of Fine Arts). Following Germany's surrender and the end of the second world war, the governments of East Berlin and West Berlin restored it in a joint effort.
When the Revolutions of 1989 occurred and the Berlin Wall collapsed, the Gate symbolized freedom and the desire to unify the City of Berlin.