Der Eintrag
1991 Gerald Ford in Anwesenheit von Helmut Schmidt und James Callaghan überreicht, für die Schlussakte von Helsinki, die er als seine größte Leistung im Amt ansah.
Die ausführliche Geschichte, die Herkunft und die Quellenangaben dieses Eintrags liegen bislang nur auf Englisch vor.
On 1 August 1975 the heads of state of thirty-five countries signed the Helsinki Final Act. Four weeks of negotiation between the United States and Canada, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact states had produced an agreement on cooperation across the blocs and on human rights. For the GDR it was a diplomatic success that amounted to international recognition; with his signature Erich Honecker also undertook to respect freedom of opinion, of the press and of religion and to ease travel to the west. Little changed in practice — escape attempts were still met with shots and prison — but East German citizens invoked the Helsinki provisions again and again, and the act became a foundation for the civil rights movements across the eastern bloc that helped bring the dictatorships down.
For Gerald Ford, Helsinki was the greatest foreign policy achievement of his presidency. Henry Kissinger, speaking at the Ford Presidential Library in 1990, said the Helsinki agreement had laid the ground for the change then under way in eastern Europe. On 6 September 1991, at the library's tenth anniversary, Ford was accordingly presented with a segment of the Wall. Former chancellor Helmut Schmidt, who had sat beside Honecker in Helsinki signing the same document, was there, as was James Callaghan, British foreign secretary in 1975.
How the segment was acquired is told two ways. The Federal Foundation records that the museum's curators bought it for 35,000 dollars from the Berlin Wall Commemorative Group, the company handling the American sales for the GDR government. The Foundation's own entry for the Van Andel Museum, and the earlier research behind this record, instead have the grocer Fred Meijer buying three segments from the same company and giving one each to this library, to Grand Valley State University and to the public museum. Both accounts put the segment in the same hands at the same source, and they are not necessarily incompatible — a donor paying and an institution recording a purchase price look alike from a distance — but nothing here resolves which is right, so both are kept.
The segment still shows the remains of coloured graffiti.
Wie kam es hierher?
From the Berlin Wall Commemorative Group, which handled the GDR government's American sales, and presented on 6 September 1991. Sources differ on whether the museum's curators bought it for 35,000 dollars or whether it was one of three bought and given by Fred Meijer.
Quellen
Gelistet von der Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung als #202 und vom Berlin Wall Archive als #151.
Grand Rapids, MI – Gerald Ford Library and Museum — The Wall Net ↗
One segment at the Ford museum, given by Frederik H. C. Meijer, who also donated to the Van Andel Museum Center and Grand Valley State University; the Helsinki Final Act framing.
Allgemeine ReferenzQuelle abgerufen am 2026-09-17
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide, site entry ↗
The Helsinki Final Act of 1 August 1975 and its consequences for the GDR, Kissinger's 1990 remark at the library, the presentation of the segment to Gerald Ford on 6 September 1991 at the library's tenth anniversary with Helmut Schmidt and James Callaghan present, and the curators' purchase of the segment for 35,000 dollars from the Berlin Wall Commemorative Group.
VerzeichniseintragQuelle abgerufen am 2026-09-17
Gerald R Ford Museum visitors admire Berlin Wall on anniversary ↗
On the 25th anniversary in November 2014, a local station reported the section of the Wall as a permanent exhibit in the lobby of the Gerald R. Ford Museum.
PresseberichtQuelle abgerufen am 2026-09-17
Where Have All the Fragments Gone? ↗
The Ford Museum's piece was installed in 1991 in the Meijer Lobby, bought by Fred Meijer, who said in 2008 that he got it for the museum because he had come to like Ford very much.
PresseberichtQuelle abgerufen am 2026-09-17
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide ↗
The source lists this place as a Berlin Wall location. Coordinates, where supplied, are source-reported and may represent a general area. This is not independent verification of authenticity, current presence, or public access.
VerzeichniseintragQuelle abgerufen am 2026-09-17 · Quelleneintrag 202
Berlin Wall Archive ↗
The source lists this place as a Berlin Wall location. Coordinates, where supplied, are source-reported and may represent a general area. This is not independent verification of authenticity, current presence, or public access.
VerzeichniseintragQuelle abgerufen am 2026-09-17 · Quelleneintrag 151
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