Berlin Wall stretch forgotten about for decades uncovered by historian

The Berlin Wall divided Germany's capital, the country and lives for decades until the barrier was taken down in 1989. But one historian claims to have found a large portion of wall left untouched.

Nearly 30 years on from the fall of the Cold War's most iconic monument, one Berliner has found an 80-metre stretch of it that has been left seemingly forgotten and untouched in the north east district of Pankow.

Christian Bormann claims to have found the stretch of wall back in 1999, but has only just decided to share his discovery now.

The wall, which is now crumbling and in a state of disrepair, still has original barbed wiring. According to Bormann it is "the last remaining piece of the original wall".

However this is strongly debated, with Die Welt suggesting that there are sections of the Wall still in place at Oranienburger Chaussee and the Rosenthal district.

It is thought that the stretch is a first-generation wall hastily erected by the Soviet Union when the border was solidified on the 13 August 1961.

The barrier went up despite assurances from the East German leader Walter Ulbricht, who said just two months earlier that "nobody has the intention of building a wall".

Many of these walls were put up using old pre-existing walls and leftover bricks and supplies from the buildings destroyed in the Second World War.

These walls were then either backed up or replaced by larger, stronger and more permanent walls.

But when the Soviets built the permanent wall for the Pankow area, the border was shifted slightly, which meant that the original bricked section was left forgotten, even when the wall was pulled down in 1989.

Bormann, who has kept quiet about his discovery for almost 20 years, said that he decided to come forwards now to prevent developers from demolishing it and to get the authorities in Pankow to protect it.