Twenty-five years after then U.S. President Ronald Reagan delivered his famed Berlin speech asking Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev "to tear down this wall," a plaque was unveiled on Wednesday near the spot where the late president gave his speech.

It was on June 12, 1987 when Reagan stood on the western side of Berlin's landmark, the Brandenburg Gate, challenging Gorbachev to open the gate and tear down the wall.

Nearly two-and-a-half years later on November 9, 1989, the Berlin wall came down and with it the end of Communism in Eastern Europe.

East and West Germany became one country on October 3, 1990.

U.S. ambassador to Germany Philip D. Murphy dedicated a toast to the late American president, saying "President Reagan, if you're looking down on us today, we have never forgotten either your message of hope or the challenge that you posed to (Soviet) General Secretary Gorbachev and to us all to tear down the walls that divide us."