It was the November 9th 198935 years ago, when the Berlin Wallanticipatory symbol of the end of Cold War (occurred by agreement in 1991). The Wall, the result of agreements between the Soviet Union and the United States of America after the Second World War, had divided the East Germany from the West Germany since 1961: let’s talk about 43 kilometers of concrete barrier. In 1989, however, the Berliners demolished it, marking the end of the terrible division. But hasn’t it been “thrown away”? No: the Wall is there anyway a historical artifactand many of its parts had also been graffitied and decorated with often political motifs, faces and slogans of the time. In short, it is a precious treasure of history, as well as a strong reminder of how politics can break ties between people and leave scars that may take a long time to heal.
So where are the various ones pieces? As is obvious, there are some very important wall parts at Berlinthe German capital which in turn had been divided between East and West. One of the best places to see them is there East Side Gallerya 1.3 km open-air tunnel. The longest existing stretch of the Berlin Wall is preserved here and there is also one of the most famous street art works in the world: we are talking about the mural by the artist Dmitry Vrubel which shows the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and the East German leader Erich Honecker while they exchange the “socialist kiss” (symbol of their political closeness). Then, again in Berlin, there are also some Topography of Terror (in the old SS headquarters), the Berlin Wall Memorial, the Allied Museum, the famous Checkpoint Charlie and many other places.
On the other hand there are parts or pieces of the Berlin Wall even outside the German capital: we find them throughout Germanyfrom Frankfurt to Lübeck, from Munich to Weimar; in the rest of Europe, however, remains of the barrier are preserved from Denmark to France, from Hungary to Iceland. And in the world? There are so many of them, hundreds. Some are official gifts – this is the case of the piece of Wall in Cape Town, South Africa, given to Nelson Mandela (it is the only one preserved in Africa) -, others are preserved as memorials of democracy in special museums – a Taiwan -, still others act as a memento at the request of German citizens, as in the case of the piece preserved in Canberrain Australia, outside a German club.
However, they are the country that has the most the United States of America: there are dozens of them here, almost all states have their own and some even have several. The locations are sometimes traditional (this is the case of Westminster College in Missouri, where Winston Churchill held his famous speech on the Iron Curtain) and sometimes imaginative: the men’s restroom at the Main Street Station Casino, Brewery and Hotel in Las Vegas boasts its own piece of the Wall, displayed right behind the urinals and protected by glass.
And in Italy? There are pieces of the Wall in only one city: Spilambertoa municipality of 12 thousand inhabitants in the province of Modena. This is once again a gift from the emigrant Carlo Accorsi, seven fragments that have been placed inside the park of the ancient Rocca Rangoni since 2009.
Then, even though it is technically not Italy, a section of the Berlin Wall is on display in Vatican City in Vatican Gardensdonated by Marco Piccininni in 1994 after he had purchased it at an auction (all wall segments) in Monte Carlo a few years earlier. A non-random gift, given that on this piece of the Wall there is a painting that recreates a part of the church of San Michele in Mitte, created by the Iranian artist resident in Berlin Yadegar Asisi to “complete the view” covered by concrete for many years.
