When the Berlin Wall was opened 35 years ago, the first trophy hunters quickly got to work. “It was something that started that same night,” says Cornelia Thiele of the Berlin Wall Foundation. “Many of us took pictures, in front of the Brandenburg Gate, on the evening of November 9, of people with hammers and chisels breaking off pieces to take with them.” What for many at the time was a simple impulse in a historical moment, became for others a source of income. To this day, tourists can buy small or larger pieces of the Wall for just a few euros. Exactly 35 years after its fall, the Wall has turned into a success story in the export sector as well.

Since the beginning of 2024, the brothers Sebastian and Julian Zaha have been doing golden business. With their wholesale business ‘Berlin Souvenirs’ they supply around 40% of Berlin’s souvenir shops with pieces of the Wall. It’s a very…..dusty affair because cutting concrete blocks often requires hacksaws and circular saws in addition to a hammer and chisel.

According to the two brothers, they sell an average of one cardboard box of pieces of the Wall every day. Not only in Berlin souvenir shops, but also online all over the world. They have customers from Madagascar, Brazil and Australia. However, most orders from abroad come from China and the USA.

Plexiglas wall piece for €17.90

But many businesses have shown and still show a practical interest in the Berlin Wall, says Cornelia Thiele from the Berlin Wall Foundation. Shortly after the fall of the Wall in 1989, large international companies approached the embassies of the Democratic Republic of Germany and the Ministry of Foreign Trade, offering large sums of money. The East German government at the time, always in search of foreign exchange and hard currency, seized the opportunity by establishing the Limex agency, which organized auctions. However, because after the Fall of the Wall and until the reunification of the two Germanys, one historical development followed another, the Limex agency never managed to function normally. In the summer of 1990, the Berlin Wall was torn down and partially used as building material.

But why even today, 35 years later, do many visitors to Berlin buy pieces of the Wall? An L-sized plexiglass-mounted piece with a certificate of authenticity costs €17.90 at Berlin Souvenirs.

From a symbol of division to a symbol of freedom

Alexandra Hildebrand runs the “Wall Museum” at the former border checkpoint, the infamous Checkpoint Charlie, in the center of the German capital. It is a private museum dedicated to the escape methods of East Germans in what was then West Germany, hidden in cars, by surfing or by improvised monoplanes. The director tells the German news agency: From its construction in 1961 until its fall in 1989, “the Berlin Wall was a symbol of division, while today it is a symbol of freedom.” Cornelia Thiele has a similar opinion, speaking of a positive symbol, a symbol of transcendence.

As the years go by, the Wall seems to gain more and more importance. Perhaps because of the new cold war between East and West or the war in Ukraine, the Wall is coming back to the fore. Of course to the benefit of the souvenir sellers, who assure that they are able to supply those interested for several more years. According to Cornelia Thiele from the Berlin Wall Foundation, a large number of sections of the Wall are in private hands and periodically appear on the market.

Editor: Stefanos Georgakopoulos