“Ich bin ein Berliner,” John F. Kennedy (June 26, 1963). This very well may be JFK’s most famous quote, a genuine and heartfelt expression of solidarity with the repressed East Berlin residents. They were separated from fellow Berliners, friends, and sometimes family members, by an imposing wall, ordered built by Soviet Union and its German authority.

On this day August 12, in 1961, officials of the German Democratic Republic signed an order to build the notorious Berlin Wall. The wall was intended to stop the “brain drain” of educated East Berliners into the more prosperous democratic West.

The wall, protected in some parts by machine guns and land mines, became a physical symbol of the divide between Russia and the West. Many people died trying to cross it, and the wall stood unchallenged for nearly 30 years. Its demolition became a worldwide celebration for the emancipation of mankind.