For 28 years, two months and 27 days, the Berlin Wall divided a city.

Today that wall has been gone one day longer than it stood.

In an effort to stem the tide of refugees attempting to leave East Berlin, the communist government of East Germany constructed a wall that totally encircled West Berlin.

The 155-kilometre, 3.6-metre-high concrete and barbed wire divider separated East and Western Berlin from August 1961 to November 1989.

But just two months earlier, the East German leader, Walter Ulbricht, told journalists "nobody has any intention of building a wall".

It took just a few hours to close off West Berlin completely.

Along its length were more than 300 watchtowers and 20 bunkers, thousands of soldiers, guard dogs, alarms, ditches to trap vehicles, and a no-man's land that varied in width from about 300 metres to the width of a street.

Despite these preventative measures, many attempted to cross the wall. Exact numbers are uncertain but it is understood about 5,000 people crossed the wall successfully and more than 130 died in the attempt.

While parts of the wall have been dismantled since its fall on November 9, 1989, remaining sections are a tourist attraction.

The former border crossing Checkpoint Charlie has also become an important landmark and museum in Berlin.

East German guard Conrad Schumann leaps over barbed wire into West Berlin, August 15, 1961. ( CIA photo )

West Berliners wave to friends and family across the Berlin Wall, September 16, 1961. ( CIA photo )

West Berliners walk in front of the Berlin Wall at the Allied Checkpoint Charlie in July, 1963. ( Reuters: Norbert Bensch )

West Berliners hold a vigil atop the Berlin Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate, November 10, 1989. ( Reuters )

East and West Berliners meet at Potsdamer Platz after the Berlin Wall was torn down to make way for a new border crossing, November 12, 1989. ( Reuters )

An East German border soldier looks at a man hammering a section of the Berlin Wall near Checkpoint Charlie, June 1990. ( Reuters: Fabrizio Bensch )

A big section of the Berlin Wall is lifted by a crane as East Germany starts to dismantle the wall near the Brandenburg Gate in East Berlin, February 20, 1990. ( Reuters )