Incredible photos show how Berlin has changed over time after the 28th anniversary of the city's reunification

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Sophie Williams18 October 2018

These incredible images show how Berlin has changed over time since the reunification of the city's east and west when the wall was toppled.

Images from the past and present have been fused together to show how much the German capital has developed.

It coincides with the 28th anniversary of the reunification of the east and west of the city when the Berlin wall came down.

The German capital was left divided when communist East German authorities built a wall overnight on 13 August 1961.

The wall totally encircled West Berlin leaving it completely isolated, with families completely torn apart.

East German guards look on as the Berlin Wall is destroyed in 1989
Alamy

Armed soldiers patrolled the wall and would shoot anyone attempting to escape. However thousands of people found ways of escaping, hiding in car boots or digging tunnels.

On November 9, 1989, East German spokesman Gunter Schabowski announced that East Germans would be free to travel into West Germany starting immediately.

After hearing the news, East Germans gathered at the wall and demanded to be let through the gates. At 10.45pm, the guards opened the checkpoints and people flocked to the west. West Berliners waited on the other side with champagne and flowers.

That night, Berliners were pictured standing on the wall and cheering in celebration.

In the days after, the wall came down.

East Side Gallery: Nowadays the wall is a major tourist attraction
Getty Images

Germany officially reunited on 3 October 1990, 11 months after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

One image shows the Berlin Wall before it was torn down in 1989 with another showing the capital in present day with people able to freely wander around.

Parts of the wall in the capital still remain. They make up part of the East Side Gallery.

Another image from the collection show Potsdamer Platz in 1945 alongside a modern picture of the area. In the 1945 image, a building can be seen heavily bombed. It would have been taken shortly before the fall of the city to the Soviet army.

Nowadays, Potsdamer Platz is a vibrant area in the capital, full of shops and restaurants and a popular tourist spot.

The images were taken by German photographer David Köster and collected by Lenstore.de. In preparation for the photo shoot, he researched every location on Google Street View to name sure that the present images were taken from the exact same angle as the historical ones to create an exact overlay.

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