We can vote in the UN against South African apartheid or Portuguese rule in Angola, but we cannot even introduce a motion on the Berlin Wall -- much less, give the simple order to push the Wall down.

* 1961 – Conrad Schumann flees from East Germany while on duty guarding the construction of the Berlin Wall.

* 1962 – East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin becoming one of the first victims of the wall.

* 1989 – Several hundred East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events which began the process of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

* 1997 – Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, is convicted of a shoot-to-kill policy at the Berlin Wall.

After World War II, the city became divided into East Berlin — the capital of East Germany — and West Berlin, a West German exclave surrounded by the Berlin Wall ( 1961 – 1989 ).

The Berlin Wall in 1986, painted on the western side.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

As a result of the political and economical tensions brought on by the Cold War, on 13 August 1961, East Germany began building of the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin and similar barriers around West Berlin, and events escalated to a tank standoff at Checkpoint Charlie on 27 October 1961.

In 1989, with the end of the Cold War and pressure from the East German population, the Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989 and was subsequently mostly demolished, with little of its physical structure remaining today ; the East Side Gallery in Friedrichshain near the Oberbaumbrücke over the Spree preserves a portion of the Wall.

The East Side Gallery is an open-air exhibition of art painted directly on the last existing portions of the Berlin Wall.

In addition, Khrushchev ’ s impression of Kennedy ’ s weakness was confirmed by the President ’ s soft response during the Berlin Crisis of 1961, particularly the building of the Berlin Wall.

Conversely, the end of the Cold War marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 resulted in a reduction in the duration of Cold War civil wars of 92 % or, phrased another way, a roughly ten-fold increase in the rate of resolution of Cold War civil wars.

For example, " 9 / 11 " can refer to both the Fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 and to September 11 attacks.

In Berlin on November 9, 2009, giant dominoes were toppled in a 20th anniversary commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Inspired by the USSR's Glasnost and the fall of the Berlin Wall, this group also favored a new political orientation, focused less on Marxism and armed struggle, and more on the democratisation of Palestinian society.

The Chancellor had as much business there as Ulbricht had in East Berlin -- and was certainly less provocative than the juvenile sound-truck taunts of Gerhard Eisler.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, Khrushchev was adding his bit to the march of world law by promising to build a bomb with a wallop equal to 100 million tons of TNT, to knock sense into the heads of those backward oafs who can't see the justice of surrendering West Berlin to communism.

This statement recalls the 1959 Berlin crisis, when President Eisenhower first told reporters that Berlin could not be defended with conventional weapons and then added that a nuclear defense was out of the picture too.

President Kennedy's latest warning to the Communist world that the United States will build up its military strength to meet any challenge in Berlin or elsewhere was, somewhat surprisingly, reported in full text or fairly accurate excerpts behind the Iron Curtain.

The weekly loss is partly counterbalanced by 500 arrivals each week from West Germany, but the hard truth, says Crossman, is that `` The closing off of East Berlin without interference from the West and with the use only of East German, as distinct from Russian, troops was a major Communist victory, which dealt West Berlin a deadly, possibly a fatal, blow.

One effect of the spirited give-and-take of these discussions was to focus attention on practical applications and the necessity of being armed with the facts: knowledge of the destructive force of even the tiniest `` tactical '' atomic weapon would have a bearing on judgments as to the advisability of its use -- to defend Berlin, for example ; ;

In Berlin he published his views of the chemical laws of nature in German and this was issued in French translation ( Paris, 1813 ) under the title Recherches Sur l'identite Des Forces chimiques et electriques, a work held in very high esteem by the new generation of research chemists.

In the railway station at Berlin, a uniformed attendant was chanting, ' Foreigners this way!!

Starting in great force late in December, from a line stretching from East Prussia to Budapest, the Red armies had swept two hundred miles across Poland to the Oder, thirty miles from Berlin, and the Upper Danube region was being rapidly overrun, while the Western Allies had not yet occupied all of the left bank of the Rhine.

Though President John F. Kennedy was primarily concerned with the crucial problems of Berlin and disarmament adviser McCloy's unexpected report from Khrushchev, his new enthusiasm and reliance on personal diplomacy involved him in other key problems of U.S. foreign policy last week.

in effect, he was practicing what he preached in his Berlin message two weeks ago when he declared: `` We shall always be prepared to discuss international problems with any and all nations that are willing to talk, and listen, with reason ''.

The normal rate of suicides in East Berlin was one a day, but since the border was closed on August 13 it has jumped to 25 a day!!

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the founders of modern architecture and the last director of the Bauhaus during its period in Dessau and Berlin was born in Aachen as well.

Several of Alexander's works were published in the Aldine edition of Aristotle, Venice, 1495 – 1498 ; his De Fato and De Anima were printed along with the works of Themistius at Venice ( 1534 ); the former work, which has been translated into Latin by Grotius and also by Schulthess, was edited by J. C. Orelli, Zürich, 1824 ; and his commentaries on the Metaphysica by H. Bonitz, Berlin, 1847.

Alexander Grothendieck was born in Berlin to anarchist parents: a Ukrainian father from an ultimately Hassidic family, Alexander " Sascha " Shapiro aka Tanaroff, and a mother from a German Protestant family, Johanna " Hanka " Grothendieck ; both of his parents had broken away from their early backgrounds in their teens.

Born in Munich, Drexler was a machine-fitter before becoming a railway locksmith in Berlin in 1902.

* 1999 – The German Bundestag returns to Berlin, the first German parliamentary body to meet there since the Reichstag was dissolved in 1945.

Following the Leipzig premiere, the opera was presented in Berlin in December 1931 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm conducted by Alexander von Zemlinsky with Lotte Lenya as Jenny, Trude Hesterberg as Begbick, and Harald Paulsen as Jimmy.

The opera, which Berg completed in 1922, was first performed on December 14, 1925, when Erich Kleiber directed the first performance in Berlin.

For example, he once missed first prize in a tournament in Berlin by losing to Sämisch, and when it became clear he was going to lose the game, Nimzowitsch stood up on the table and shouted, " Gegen diesen Idioten muss ich verlieren!

This version was also played in Hamburg, Dresden, Hanover, and Berlin, although, in the wake of protests and a lack of success, Niemann-Raabe eventually restored the original ending.

First documented in the 13th century, Berlin was the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia ( 1701 – 1918 ), the German Empire ( 1871 – 1918 ), the Weimar Republic ( 1919 – 1933 ) and the Third Reich ( 1933 – 1945 ).

During his tenure he also fulfilled guest engagements at the Berlin State Opera.

Remembering the step-by-step fate of Danzig and the West German misgivings about `` salami '' tactics, it is to be hoped that the dispatch of General Clay to West Berlin as President Kennedy's representative will mark a stiffening of response not only to future indignities and aggressions but also to some that have passed.

The Secretary of State has also solemnly repeated a warning to the Soviet Union that the United States will not stand for another setback in Berlin, an affirmation once again taken up by the council as a whole.

Berlin also serves as a continental hub for air and rail transport, and is a popular tourist destination.

A series of lakes also feeds into the upper Spree, which flows through the Großer Müggelsee in eastern Berlin.

He entered the Kriegsakademie ( also cited as " The German War School ," the " Military Academy in Berlin ," and the " Prussian Military Academy ") in Berlin in 1801 ( age 21 ), studied the writings of the philosopher Immanuel Kant, and won the regard of General Gerhard von Scharnhorst, the future first chief of staff of the new Prussian Army ( appointed 1809 ).

Kennedy also believed that United States ' allies would think of the US as " trigger-happy cowboys " who lost Berlin because they could not peacefully resolve the Cuban situation.

At the same time, the Grundlegung systematically integrated previous specialized work done at Free University of Berlin in the ' 70s by critical psychologists who also had been influenced by Marx, Leontyev and Seve.

As well as the main members of Berlin Dada, Grosz, Raoul Hausmann, Höch, Johannes Baader, Huelsenbeck and Heartfield, the exhibition also included work by Otto Dix, Francis Picabia, Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Rudolf Schlichter, Johannes Baargeld and others.

In the spring of 1882, Hermann Minkowski ( two years younger than Hilbert and also a native of Königsberg but so talented he had graduated early from his gymnasium and gone to Berlin for three semesters ), returned to Königsberg and entered the university.

From 1717, he traveled to Berlin, Halle, Leipzig, Dresden, Copenhagen, and also to his hometown, where his brother still lived.

These days they are also visible in parts of the former West Berlin following a civic debate about whether the " Ampelmännchen " should be abolished or disseminated more widely.

" Munch almost gave in to Tulla, but fled from her in 1900, also turning away from her considerable fortune, and moved to Berlin.

Lost Spring, also by Nakamura, was in competition for the Golden Bear at the 17th Berlin International Film Festival.

) The film was also entered into the 44th Berlin International Film Festival.

She was transferred from Mauthausen to the notorious women's concentration camp at Ravensbruck, located 50 miles from Berlin, where unbeknownst to Gemma at the time, her daughter Yolanda ( whose husband also died in the camps ) and baby grandson were also held for a year in a separate barrack.

She also wrote that the Soviets were " violating girls and women of all ages ", and about her, her daughter's and grandson's suffering as displaced persons in postwar Berlin, where the Germans abandoned them for a possible hostage exchange in April 1945, as the Russians were advancing.

Regional specialties, such as the Münchner Weißwurst ( Munich white sausage ) popular in Bavaria or the Currywurst ( depending on region, either a steamed pork sausage or a version of the Bratwurst, sliced and spiced with curry ketchup ) popular in the metropolitan areas of Berlin, Hamburg and the Ruhr Area, can also be found from all regions of the country.

Aside from publishing, Segal has also reported on gay life from far reaching places as Lebanon, Cuba, and East Berlin during the fall of the Berlin Wall.