Today's Google Doodle dedicated to 30th anniversary of Berlin Wall

New Delhi, Nov 09: Today's Google Doodle is dedicated to the fall of the Berlin Wall which is considered as one of the most consequential events of the 20th century.

The wall, which was built in 1961, divided East and West Berlin. The official purpose of this Wall was to keep Western "fascists" from entering East Germany.

World War II came to an end in 1945 and Germany was defeated. Germany was then split into East Germany and West Germany. The eastern part went to the Soviet Union, while the western part went to the United States, Great Britain and (eventually) France.

Until 1961 East German citizen were allowed to travel to West Berlin. The Wall was erected in 1961 because more than 2.6 million East Germans escaped to West Berlin or West Germany from 1949 to 1961, according to www.dailysoft.com.

Before the wall was built, Berliners on both sides of the city could move around fairly freely.

On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's relations with the West.

Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country's borders. East and West Berliners flocked to the wall, drinking beer and champagne and chanting "Tor auf!" ("Open the gate!"). At midnight, they flooded through the checkpoints, according to www.history.com.

So, November 9 is celebrated as the day when the wall fell and people from East Germany could go to West Germany and vice verse without any restriction.