The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall

“An Iron Curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all of the capitals of the ancient states of central and eastern Europe . . . all these famous cities and populations around lie in the Soviet sphere and all are subject . . . to a very high and increasing measure of control from Moscow.” With this section of Winston Churchill’s famous speech in 1946 at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, he coined the term “Iron Curtain.” Most …

…East Germany. East Berliners marched to the wall shouting “Tor auf! Open the gate!” West Berliners waited on the other side with high expectations. Finally, East Berliners climbed over the wall and began chanting happily with the West, “The wall is gone, the wall is gone!” Then both sides began pounding at the wall with hammers, turning the wall into a pile of rocks. At last, the most hated symbol of communism was gone (Brewster 223).