Fall of the Berlin Wall
A symbol of division between the communist East and the capitalist West, the Berlin Wall separating East Germany (GDR) from West Germany (FRG) was erected in 1961 to form a tightly closed border between the two economies.
The wall served to prevent an exodus of inhabitants from the Eastern Bloc toward the West during the Cold War. In 1989, several social movements protested the USSR’s hold on Eastern Bloc states, such as Poland, Hungary, and the GDR. The subsequent fall of the Berlin Wall represented the end of communist regimes in Europe.
