On 9 November 1989, three days before this photograph was taken, the East German government – amid some confusion – announced that anyone wishing to visit the West would be granted a visa. Ecstatic crowds surged at the Berlin Wall and guards were left with no choice (other than massacre) but to open the various gates and checkpoints. This effectively was the “Fall of the Berlin Wall” (though it was days later when the actual demolition of the Wall began), and it ended almost thirty years of division between East and West Berlin. The wall was constructed on 13 August, 1961 and became increasingly fortified, stretching across an 860-mile (1,380-kilometre) border.