The Berlin Wall was built by Communist East Germany in 1962 as a barrier to the democratic, liberal-capitalist West Germany. It emerged overnight as a wire fence and slowly solidified into a concrete wall that prevented the free movement of people, splitting families and stopping many people going to work. Some people were shot crossing it, trying to escape the despotic Communist regime. It became the key symbol of the Cold War.
In the 1980s, pressure mounted and musicians like David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen played ‘Freedom’ concerts which were heard over the wall. Levi jeans and colour televisions were flaunted as desirable Western goods that Communists were unable to produce. In 1987, US President Reagan visited the wall, goading the Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev to ‘tear [it] down’.
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