The purpose of the Berlin Wall, erected in 1961, was to divide East and West Berlin, symbolizing the broader ideological conflict of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the Western democracies. The wall was constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) to stop the mass emigration of East Germans to the West, which threatened the communist regime. It physically represented the divide between capitalist and communist ideologies. The wall remained in place until 1989, when it fell, marking the beginning of the end for communist control in Eastern Europe and leading to the reunification of Germany.