"Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

- Ronald Reagan, 1987

In this Reagan quote, the "wall" to which the President refers was located in the divided city of

Berlin, Germany. The Berlin Wall was a physical barrier that separated East and West Berlin from 1961 to 1989. It was constructed by the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) to prevent its citizens from fleeing to West Germany. Reagan's speech, delivered in 1987, was a call for the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to open the gates of the Berlin Wall and allow the reunification of Germany.