Emotional Vintage Photos of Children Playing at the Berlin Wall in 1963

Thomas Hoepker is one of the most acclaimed Magnum photographers. He has been working as a photojournalist for 60 years and captured life in East Germany from 1959 to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Below is a collection of interesting black and white photographs of children playing along the Berlin Wall taken by Hoepker in 1963.

Child with scooter at the Berlin Wall. This pedestrian way belongs to the Soviet Sector of Berlin.

Two boys in leather shorts standing on a viewing platform at the western side of the Berlin Wall.

Children playing at the Berlin Wall in Berlin Wedding.

A child playing by the Berlin Wall. The latin words "IN TYRANNOS" has been written in capital letters on the Wall. West-Berlin.

A man takes souvenir photos of his sons at the Berlin Wall near Bernauer Strasse. West-Berlin Wedding.

Scene at the Berlin Wall near Bernauer Strasse. Four children, one of them with a soccer ball and another with a bike, watching a fifth child climbing up the Wall.

Children playing on the western side of the Berlin Wall.

Children playing on the western side of the Berlin Wall.

Children playing at the Berlin Wall near Bernauer Strasse. The three boys are climbing up the wall and moving along a barbed wire fence alongside the wall hand by hand.

A young boy, on the West Berlin side, climbing the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin.

Boys wrestling on western side of the Berlin Wall near Bernauer Strasse while East German border guard watches with binoculars.

Young boys playing near a barbed wire fence along the border between East and West Berlin.

A young girl playing near a barbed wire fence along the border Wall between East and West Berlin.

A young boy looking out a window near the border Wall between East and West Berlin.

Children playing at the Berlin Wall in Wedding.

Children playing on the western side of the Berlin Wall.

Children playing at the Western side of the Berlin Wall.

Children playing on the western side of the Berlin Wall.

Girl and West Berlin Policeman in front of the Berlin Wall in Berlin Wedding.

Children playing at the Berlin Wall in Berlin Wedding.

Children playing at the Berlin Wall in Berlin Wedding.

Children playing at the Berlin Wall in Berlin Wedding.

Children playing at the Berlin Wall in Berlin Wedding.

A girl on an overpass at the Berlin Wall in West-Berlin Wedding.

Children playing at the Berlin Wall in Berlin Wedding.

Garden Gnome in front of the Berlin Wall in Berlin Wedding.

Children playing at the Berlin Wall in Berlin Wedding.

Children playing at the Berlin Wall in Berlin Wedding.

Children playing at the Berlin Wall in Berlin Wedding.

A young boy playing with an East German border guard near a barbed wire fence along the border between East and West Berlin. The boy is looking through binoculars into the West.

A young boy playing with an East German border guard near a barbed wire fence along the border between East and West Berlin. The boy is looking through binoculars into the West.

A boy playing with an East German border guard behind a barbed wire fence along the border wall between East and West Berlin.

A boy playing with an East German border guard behind a barbed wire fence along the border wall between East and West Berlin.

A boy playing with an East German guard behind a barbed wire fence along the border between East and West Berlin. The soldier is lying in the grass and performing gymnastics while the young boy watches him.

(Photos © Thomas Hoepker-Magnum)