Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, an event that not only reshaped Europe and redefined international relations, but one that also represented a very specific period of news coverage. Earlier, our own Glynnis MacNicol called Peter Jennings‘ television coverage “such a quick and poignant reminder of a time when network news actually did break news stories to a nation unaware of the breaking events on the world stage.”

But in addition to television, the Wall holds an iconic place in photographs and in the magazines of the mid-20th century. The above photo, perhaps the most iconic image from the early days of the Berlin Wall, shows an East German soldier leaping over barbed wire to escape to West Berlin before the wall was complete. Below, we’ve collected a few of the defining magazine covers of the era, from the Berlin Wall’s beginnings in 1961 to its fall in 1989.

Time, August 1961

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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.