<P> Physically, the Iron Curtain took the form of border defences between the countries of Europe in the middle of the continent . The most notable border was marked by the Berlin Wall and its Checkpoint Charlie, which served as a symbol of the Curtain as a whole . </P> <P> The events that demolished the Iron Curtain started in discontent in Poland, and continued in Hungary, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Romania . Romania became the only communist state in Europe to overthrow its government with violence . </P> <P> The use of the term iron curtain as a metaphor for strict separation goes back at least as far as the early 19th century . It originally referred to fireproof curtains in theaters . Although its popularity as a Cold War symbol is attributed to its use in a speech Winston Churchill gave in 5 March 1946 in Fulton, Missouri, German Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels had already used the term in reference to the Soviet Union . </P> <P> Various usages of the term "iron curtain" (Russian: Железный занавес Zheleznyj zanaves; German: Eiserner Vorhang; Georgian: რკინის ფარდა Rkinis pharda; Czech and Slovak: Železná opona; Hungarian: Vasfüggöny; Romanian: Cortina de fier; Italian: Cortina di ferro; Serbian: Гвоздена завеса Gvozdena zavesa; Estonian: Raudne eesriie; Bulgarian: Желязна завеса Zhelyazna zavesä) pre-date Churchill's use of the phrase . The concept goes back to the Babylonian Talmud of the 3rd to 5th centuries CE, where Tractate Sota 38b refers to a "mechitza shel barzel", an iron barrier or divider: "אפילו מחיצה של ברזל אינה מפסקת בין ישראל לאביהם שבשמים" (Even an iron barrier cannot separate (the people of) Israel from their heavenly father). </P>

Who is widely credited with coining the term iron curtain