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The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. For 28 years, the heavily fortified stood as the most tangible symbol of the Cold War–a literal “iron curtain” dividing Europe.

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Before the wall was built, Berliners on both sides of the city could move around fairly freely: They crossed the East-West border to work, to shop, to go to the theater and the movies. Trains and subway lines carried passengers back and forth.

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The wall was built to keep the country's people in. But the Soviets and East German government said it was to keep capitalism out.

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After the wall was built, it became impossible to get from East to West Berlin except through one of three checkpoints: at Helmstedt, at Dreilinden  and in the center of Berlin at Friedrichstrasse. At each of the checkpoints, East German soldiers screened diplomats and other officials before they were allowed to enter or leave. Except under special circumstances, travelers from East and West Berlin were rarely allowed across the border.

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Through secret tunnels. In the largest escape in the Berlin Wall's  history, two secret tunnels were used to get to freedom. Dubbed the “Senior Citizens Tunnel” a group of 12 people, most of them elderly, dug for 16 days until their 32-meter long tunnel brought them into the West. Other methods were  jumping out of windows adjacent to the wall, climbing over the barbed wire, flying in hot air balloons, crawling through the sewers and driving through unfortified parts of the wall at high speeds.

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More than 2 million people from East Berlin visited West Berlin that weekend to participate in a celebration that was, one journalist wrote, “the greatest street party in the history of the world.” People used hammers and picks to knock away chunks of the wall–they became known as “mauerspechte,” or “wall woodpeckers”—while cranes and bulldozers pulled down section after section. Soon the wall was gone and Berlin was united for the first time since 1945. “Only today,” one Berliner spray-painted on a piece of the wall, “is the war really over.”

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Why was taking down the Berlin Wall significant?

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Why was taking down the Berlin Wall significant?

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When the Berlin Wall was taken down, it was a symbol to the world that the Cold War was over. It reunited East and West Germany and was a monumental event for the whole world.

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The fall of the Berlin Wall started what was called the Velvet Revolution. It was another large revolution that changed at least part of the world.