Berlin Wall pieces in works by Ben Wagin
Two memorials by the Berlin artist Ben Wagin: the Parliament of Trees on the former border strip, and the only wall element in public space in Bonn.
Ben Wagin laid out the Parlament der Bäume on the former border strip by the Spree in 1990, planting trees among original wall elements and painting the slabs with the names of the dead and the years of the division. It is the earliest artist-made memorial in the atlas and the only one in which the Wall is one material among several: the work is as much about what grew on the line as about what stood on it. The elements were rearranged in place by the artist rather than moved to a new site, and part of the ground was built over when the parliamentary quarter went up, which is its own comment.
Nineteen years later two restaurateurs commissioned a second work from him for Bonn: Friedel Drautzburg and Harald Grunert, founders of the Ständige Vertretung, the establishment named after the permanent mission that stood in for an embassy between two German states that did not recognise each other. It stands at the Schürmann-Bau, the seat of Deutsche Welle, and is recorded as the only wall element in public space in a city that was the capital of the Federal Republic for the whole life of the Wall, and which has less of it than a good many small towns.
Berlin
Original elements rearranged in place by the artist in 1990, painted with the names of the dead and the years of the division.
Bonn
Commissioned in 2009 by the founders of the Ständige Vertretung; the only wall element in public space in Bonn.
Each site says what its evidence rests on, from Listed to Confirmed, and whether the piece can be seen today; a listing in a source inventory is not a confirmation that anyone has seen it. The research methodology explains how claims are weighed.