The Berlin Wall was erected in the dead of night on August 13, 1961 to prevent East Germans from leaving, and for 28 years this physical division between East and West Germany became the symbolic boundary between democracy and communism during the Cold War. Its demolition in 1989 marked the beginning of a new Germany and set the conditions for the construction of a new Berlin, now one of the most vibrant, open-minded and artistic capital cities in a unified Europe.