My wife lived in divided Germany as a child. She is now a school teacher and without fail must explain yearly to middle and high school students what the wall was...they have no clue.
You can bet they've been taught all about any number of PC garbage topics but can't tell you who wrote the Declaration of Independence or anything about the Reagan/Bush I administrations.
It still stuns her today to watch footage of the wall coming down...
Be sure to tell your wife (if she doesn't already know) that a piece of that Berlin Wall is on the lawn of the President Bush #41 library. Perhaps her students can then see for themselves a piece of history.
that is why most older Germans and Eastern Europeans get it.....they lived through it