Background information

Ronald Reagan’s “Tear down this wall” speech, argues for the removal of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall separated West Germany (and, essentially, the rest of Western Europe) from East Germany and the European countries under the influence of the Soviet Union. The Wall divided Berlin into West Berlin and East Berlin.

The construction of the Wall began in August 1961. The main purpose was to prevent immigration from East Germany into Western Europe. The construction caused protests from Western Germany, but also from other countries as well, who disagreed with the idea of the Berlin Wall. After the Wall was built, some families in Berlin were cut off from each other as they had members living on either side of the wall. Although initially people from West Berlin could not travel to East Berlin a...