Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl is to receive a piece of the Berlin Wall next week for his work in reuniting East and West Germany and bringing the Wall down, according to dpa. The gift, from German tabloid Bild, will be presented on Tuesday. The 3.6-metre high, 2.7-tonne piece of the Wall, which divided Berlin from 1961-1989, will stand in the garden of Kohl's home. Germany is awash with commemorations of the Wall as the 50th anniversary of its 1961 construction nears. East German officials built it to stem the tide of East Germans crossing over to the West to flee the Communist regime. It soon became the most visible symbol of the Cold War's East-West divide. Kohl was chancellor in 1989 when the East German regime began to collapse and implemented measures that eventually led to the integration of the two countries.
