8. What is the Berlin Wall? Why was it so symbolic when it was torn down?

After World War 2 ended, the Soviet Union held on to eastern Germany & put up a communist government. Germany was divided into East & West. Berlin was the Capital City of Nazi Germany and the Allied countries each had control of their own quarter of the city after Germany surrendered. In order to prevent Eastern Germans to escape (defect if you will) to the west, the Soviet Union built a wall in Berlin. When it was torn down & Germany reunified, it signalled the end of the Cold War & the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.