The significance of the Berlin Wall in East/West relations was monumental, symbolizing the division between communist Eastern Europe and democratic Western Europe during the Cold War. Erected in 1961, the Wall physically and ideologically separated East and West Berlin, representing the broader conflict between the Eastern Bloc and the Western democracies. Its existence reinforced the idea of a divided world and was a potent symbol of oppression in the East against the freedoms enjoyed in the West. The Wall's fall in 1989 became a powerful emblem of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, fostering hopes for reunification and a new democratic order.