If the Berlin had not fallen, the European Union might not be as large as it is today. The Wall recalls its history.

Eureka: I am the Berlin Wall

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/15183669/J003-0003-EN.srt

Is this part of a tagged concrete wall   abandoned near the EP?

No, it's just a bit of me:   the Berlin Wall.

You know, the one they called   the Wall of Shame.

If I hadn't been pulled down,   a unified Europe might not yet exist,

and the European Union might have   fewer countries in it.

After World War 2,   Europe was split in two: East and West.

Germany lost the war   and was controlled by the winners.

West Germany was occupied by   the French, British and Americans.

East Germany was controlled by   the Soviet Union.

Berlin, the German capital   was split in the same way.

From 1949 to 1961, about 3 million   East Germans fled to the West,

which explains how I got to be here   in the night of 12-13 August 1961.

When only some of me   was covered with barbed wire

a sentry from the East jumped over me   to escape the Soviet Communist regime.

They built me bit by bit. By the end   of the eighties I was almost 150km long.

Actually I was made up   of two walls not one.

Two concrete walls   that were about three metres high,

separated by the so-called death strip,   which was between 50-300m wide.

This zone was controlled by soldiers   who patrolled with lights day and night.

Worse still, it was covered in sand which   was regularly raked to spot footprints.

The resources used to stop   people from scaling me were huge.

In total I was watched by   over 300 watch towers,

14,000 guards and 600 dogs,   not forgetting kilometres of barbed wire.

Like these children from the West who   fell in a river that belonged to the East.

No-one saved them because   they were afraid of being shot.

Others tried to get over me by jumping   from building windows, but never made it.

I made many families sad   because I kept them apart.

so children on one side of me had to   wave to their grandparents on the other.

East Germans were escaping through   another country, so I served no purpose.

On 9 November 1989 Germans were   allowed to travel from East to West.

In a few hours crowds of East and West   Germans had gathered around me...

Champagne flowed   to cheer my downfall.

Today, part of me will be repainted to   celebrate the 20th anniversary of my fall.

Artists from all over the world who tagged   me were invited to refresh their work.

Another part of me was left in its original   state to show what I used to look like.

Other sections were sent abroad and   placed in symbolic areas,

so that people wouldn't forget me:   the Wall of Shame.