Berlin Wall pieces at schools and universities
Campuses and schoolyards from Massachusetts to Singapore, where the object is there to be explained to people who were born after it fell.
American universities are the single most common category of recipient in the atlas, and the records show how differently they came by their pieces. Some bought: Capital University in Columbus took its segment as a permanent loan when a 1992 flower show closed, and the Hoover Institution bought a fragment from the New Jersey company handling the GDR's American sales. Some asked: a political scientist at Loyola Marymount wrote to the mayor of Berlin in 1996 to mark the twinning of the two cities; Chapman's president saw the Reagan library's monument, wrote to the mayor, and got a piece in 1998 at a point when the city had one left to give away; Johns Hopkins SAIS sent its German-studies director to a Berlin storage yard, where he chose a segment for a graffito he was confident read frei and which turned out to read Fred. And some were given one for who they were: the segment in the Reagan Peace Garden marks the commencement speech Reagan gave at his own college in 1982.
The schools are a smaller and more consistent group: the German schools abroad in Richmond, Yokohama and at the two campuses of the Colegio Alemán in Mexico City, the John F. Kennedy School in Berlin, the Atlanta International School. Their job, as one record puts it, is to explain a country to children who live somewhere else. Two were procured by the pupils themselves: a year-eleven German class at Colombes read in a German newspaper that a builders' merchant in Teltow was selling elements, ran a painting competition and raised the money for two; and the element at a music school in Mogi Mirim was painted in Berlin by Brazilian and German children together before it was flown home. The Mexico City pair, bought from an advertisement in the Economist, carry the clearest account anywhere of how the 1990 trade worked: 100,000 marks asked, 30,000 accepted because the buyers were German schools, the money promised to the Charité, and an officer of the People's Police to show the buyer round the storage yard the next morning.
Amherst
A Thierry Noir panel in a glass case beside Herter Hall, set east–west as it stood in Berlin; unveiled in 2023.
Charlottesville
A segment outside Alderman Library at the University of Virginia.
Columbus
Shipped over for a 1992 flower show's German pavilion and left with Capital University as a permanent loan.
Eureka
In the Reagan Peace Garden at Reagan's own college, marking the commencement speech he gave there in 1982.
Flagstaff
A purple and pink fragment given to Northern Arizona University in 1993, with a Limex-Bau certificate of authenticity.
Fulton
Edwina Sandys's Breakthrough, on the Westminster College lawn where Churchill spoke in 1946.
Grand Rapids
The Meijer segment on Grand Valley State's Allendale campus, dedicated in 1992 outside the university library.
Hamilton
A fragment on the Colgate University campus in upstate New York.
Honolulu
A slab behind the bookstore at Honolulu Community College, both faces visible; the site furthest from Berlin.
Houston
At the corner of Baker Hall, Rice University, marking James Baker's part in the diplomacy that unified Germany.
Kennesaw
On loan to Kennesaw State University, outside the social sciences building.
Los Angeles
Fragment 124, secured by a professor who wrote to the mayor of Berlin to mark the Berlin–Los Angeles twinning.
Miami
Presented by the German consul general on 9 November 2014, at the entrance to the Wolfson Campus.
Orange
In a reflecting pool in Chapman's Liberty Plaza, obtained in 1998 when Berlin had one piece left to give away.
Stanford
A fragment that entered the Hoover Institution's archive as a document rather than a monument.
Washington D.C.
A 7,000 lb fragment given by the Berlin Senate in 1997; moved with the school in 2023 into the former Newseum.
Cottbus
Four elements outside the university library at BTU Cottbus, a count both inventories agree on.
Singapore
Two four-tonne panels on loan from Singapore's foreign ministry, in a garden behind Tembusu College.
Seoul
A segment on the Konkuk University campus in Gwangjin-gu.
Doha
An original graffiti-covered panel in the atrium of Georgetown's Qatar campus, unveiled in December 2018.
Atlanta
On the campus of a school that teaches in German among other languages.
Berlin
A painted element outside the German-American school named for the president who said he was a Berliner.
London
Given to the EBRD, refused planning permission, and passed to the German School in Richmond in 1994.
Mexico City
One of the pair unveiled at Mexico City's German schools on 3 October 1990, bought from an advertisement in the Economist.
Mexico City
The second of the pair, with the fullest account in the atlas of how the 1990 trade worked.
Yokohama
A small segment given to the German School Tokyo Yokohama in 2016 after years with a menswear retailer.
Colombes
Two segments a year-eleven German class bought from the Teltow yard with money they raised themselves.
Rodalben
Segments at a vocational school in the Palatinate.
Albinea
In front of the Albinea primary school since 2000, fetched from Berlin on a low-loader by a local photographer.
Mogi Mirim
At a music school in São Paulo state, painted in Berlin by Brazilian and German children together in 2015.
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.