It was probably the most defining moment in their recent history, but a new survey by the Stern news magazine suggests only a third of Germans know when the Berlin Wall came down. And only the same number knew it was built in 1961.

The timing could hardly have been worse: on November 9th next year, the country will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall.

However, this wasn't the only gap in the nation's knowledge of history. Only 35 percent of the 1001 Germans surveyed knew that the Federal Republic and the former GDR were formed in 1949. And despite the Second World War still being very present in the German media, only 61 percent knew it began in 1939.