Piece of the Berlin Wall

Since November 9, 1989, when the wall dividing East and West Berlin came down, pieces of the concrete barrier have scattered around the globe. One graffiti-sprayed, bullet hole-riddled slab wound up in Columbus, Ohio, where it can still be seen today.

To prepare for the AmeriFlora ’92 Exhibition in Columbus, Ohio, great attempts were made to showcase the growth and redevelopment of Germany to the American public. Leaders of Hansa Consulting, a German company, sponsored a booth at AmeriFlora and brought a 2.8-ton segment of the Berlin Wall for display. AmeriFlora is an internationally acclaimed horticultural exhibition, and the 1992 convention in Columbus, Ohio was the first international flower show in the United States.

Once the six-month exhibition ended, the leaders of Hansa Consulting, Huntington Bank, and Capital University worked together on an agreement for a long-term loan for the segment to be exhibited on the university campus. For this exhibition, the segment was placed inside on the first floor of the Blackmore Library to preserve the integrity of the work. 

Even though the display was quite popular, the floor of the library could not sustain the weight of the wall. In 2012, the university carefully moved the wall to the courtyard on the south side of the library. Visitors can also view a video of the team moving the segment on YouTube.