Berlin Commemorates Wall Construction 53rd Anniversary

BERLIN, GERMANY - AUGUST 13: (EDITORS NOTE: This image has been processed using digital filters.) A sculpture by artist Josefine de Vasconcellos calling for reconcilliation following World War II stands at the Bernauer Strasse Berlin Wall memorial on the 53rd anniversary of the construction of the Wall on August 13, 2014 in Berlin, Germany. The communist authorities of East Germany began constructing the Wall in order to prevent East Germans from fleeing west on August 13, 1961, and at least 138 people were killed trying to breech the wall in Berlin between 1961 and 1989. Germany will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Wall, which in 1989 was among the many tumultuos events marking the revolutions sweeping across Eastern Europe, in November of this year. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)