Photo of the Day

Picture of a German mason putting mortar in the Berlin Wall in 1961

Building the Wall

In this picture from the December 1961 issue, workers in West Germany build the Berlin Wall. The wall would prevent people in East Germany from emigrating to West Germany and the rest of Western Europe—until protests resulted in the fall of the wall in 1989.
Photograph by Volkmar Wentzel, Nat Geo Photo of the Day