REAGAN SPEECH
During its 28-year existence, the Wall served as a symbol for communist oppression.
Western leaders, including U.S. President John F. Kennedy, often had a stop at the Wall when they visited Berlin.
The ominous, grey concrete barrier served as the backdrop for U.S. President Ronald Reagan's call in 1987 to then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall!”
Gorbachev later claimed not to have taken the dramatic appeal seriously, calling it a “performance” by the one-time Hollywood actor. But the speech, like Kennedy's famous line about considering himself “a Berliner,” helped keep up morale in the western part of the city.
