Pieces of the Berlin Wall are being sold off as souvenirs and can be found in the homes of tourists around the world. — Photos: JENS KALAENE/dpa
The night the Berlin Wall, divider of Germany and of the world, was brought down, people streamed to climb over it, stand on top of it or rush through it, in shock and jubilation.
Others came with hammers.
“It started that very same evening,” says Cornelia Thiele of the Berlin Wall Foundation.
“We have pictures of the Wall, in front of the Brandenburg Gate on the night of Nov 9, where people with hammers and chisels started chipping away at the Wall, breaking off pieces and taking them with them.”
For decades the people of the former East were forbidden to approach the deadly concrete barrier. Border guards were to use deadly force, shooting people who tried to cross the Wall.
On the historic night that it was brought down, some wanted to hold onto a piece of the event, while others transformed it into a business that lives on to today.
Tourists visiting the city can buy small or large pieces of the wall for just a few euros, while individual sections of the once deadly border are popular exports.
Sebastian and Julian Sacha, two brothers from the former West Berlin, have been running a business based on the Wall since the beginning of the year, having taken over from a man dubbed a “Wall monopolist.”
That was Volker Pawlowski who was quick to realise money could be made from the Wall after reunification.
He retired and now the Sacha brothers say they supply around 40% of Berlin’s souvenir shops with pieces of the Wall through their wholesale business, Berlin Souvenirs.
Julian, who runs Urban Products Sacha, supplies souvenier shops and collectors worldwide with chunks off the former Wall.
That involves a lot of hard work, sweat and dust. They use hammers, chisels, metal cutters and circular saws to reduce the Wall into small chunks and assemble them as souvenirs. Beforehand, they touch up the peeling paint, to make the items more appealing.
They heat Plexiglas plates, emboss them and carefully bend them into shape to encase the pieces of the wall.
The Sachas sell one banana box of bricks of the wall each day, on average, to Berlin souvenir shops and stores worldwide, online. Orders come in from Madagascar to Brazil and Australia though most from abroad are either from China or the United States.
They have enough supplies for about 10 more years if business continues at its current rate, they say. Right now, it has taken a slight dip.
They have a yard in the Berlin area of Reinickendorf, where several concrete pieces of the Wall are stored.
These concrete slabs are officially known as UL12.41. One piece weighs 2.6 tonnes, is 3.2m high, 1.2m wide and – because of the base – 2.1m deep.
People climbed on top of the Berlin Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate on the night of Nov 9, 1989. — PETER KNEFFEL/dpa
A symbol of history
What is the appeal? They symbolise a historic moment in time, says Thiele, curator of the collection and archive of the Berlin Wall Foundation.
As the Wall fell, many from former East Germany, elated by their first experience of freedom, saw it as self-empowerment to approach the border for the first time and take part in its demolition.
For others, the chunks of rock were a trophy of victory, showing all that they they had overcome.
“And I think the souvenir idea also played a role from the very beginning: ‘I’m here; something big is happening right now’,” says Thiele.
Hawkers were quickly selling pieces of the Wall to tourists at the Brandenburg Gate and the iconic Checkpoint Charlie in the heart of the city.
But companies were also quick to show an interest in buying pieces of the Wall, says Thiele.
National and international companies approached East German embassies and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and offered large sums of money for parts of the Wall.
Pieces of the former Wall on the grounds of Urban Products Sacha, waiting to be sold off to collectors and tourists who are eager to see the barrier that used to divide the city and the country.
The East German government eventually sold parts, aware of the value of the pieces of the Wall. It founded the Limex agency, which held auctions – even one in Monaco.
But in the turmoil of the reunification period, from the currency reform to the unification of the divided nation, the East German business with parts of the Wall did not really take off, Thiele says.
As of summer 1990, the Wall was demolished. Often, parts of it were used as building material.
But tourists are still lining up to buy remnants, 35 years on, whether encased in Plexiglas or a snow globe.
These days, a piece of the wall in a size L Plexiglas arch costs around US$19 (RM84) on the Berlin Souvenirs website – including a certificate of authenticity. “Order a piece of history now!” it says.
Alexandra Hildebrandt runs the Berlin Wall Museum at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin which tells visitors about people who escaped from the former East Germany and how others demonstrated peacefully for human rights.
The meaning of the Wall changed, she says. “As long as it was standing, it was a symbol of division.” Now, it is a symbol of freedom. Thiele agrees, saying the border has become a positive symbol, one of overcoming.
It is also winning a new significance amid the new Cold War and the ongoing hot war between Russia and Ukraine.
That is good news for the souvenir business. – dpa
