The record
Two Grenzmauer 75 elements chosen by the German foreign ministry and carried to Brussels by the THW, unveiled by Stoltenberg, Trump and Merkel in 2017.
Two original elements stand inside the security perimeter at NATO's headquarters on the Boulevard Léopold III, by the main visitor entrance, reachable only by registered visitors. They were unveiled on 25 May 2017, the day of the first summit held at the new headquarters, alongside a memorial made from the World Trade Center — the only time Article 5 has been invoked. Jens Stoltenberg, Donald Trump and Angela Merkel all spoke.
The pair were deliberately chosen to be unlike each other. Both are Grenzmauer 75 elements — the Stützwandelement UL 12.41, the last and most familiar design — but they did different jobs. The one nearer the path, carrying a graffito of red hands, was part of the outer border wall facing West Berlin; the paint was probably applied before the border opened and was later chipped at by Mauerspechte. Its original position is not known.
The THW's own account, given to the Foreign Office's magazine the day after the unveiling, fills in the logistics: a request from the Auswärtiges Amt in mid-March 2017 to move two sections from Berlin and set them up in front of the new headquarters, the installation in April, and 2.7 tonnes apiece. One of the two bears the letters GORB. Chancellor Merkel's speech at the dedication is on the federal government's site and Jens Stoltenberg's on NATO's; in November 2019 the Secretary General was back at the memorial with the German permanent representative for the thirtieth anniversary, calling the elements „these pieces of the Berlin Wall here at the entrance to the NATO headquarters“.
How did it get here?
A gift from the Federal Republic of Germany. The elements were selected by the Auswärtiges Amt on the advice of the Berlin Wall Foundation, which asked for pieces both authentic in their physical condition and representative of 1989 and 1990, and were transported from Berlin and erected by the Technisches Hilfswerk.
Sources
Listed by the Federal Foundation as #100 and by the Berlin Wall Archive as #57.
List of Berlin Wall segments — Wikipedia ↗
Two segments recorded at NATO headquarters from 2017.
General referenceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide, site entry ↗
The 25 May 2017 unveiling and speakers, the German federal gift, the THW transport, the Auswärtiges Amt selection advised by the Berlin Wall Foundation, the Grenzmauer 75 / UL 12.41 type, and the outer-wall origin of the red-hands element.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17
Remarks by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the dedication of the Berlin Wall Memorial — NATO ↗
NATO's own transcript of the dedication of the Berlin Wall Memorial at its headquarters on 25 May 2017, where everyone entering the building passes it.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
NATO commemorates 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall — NATO ↗
On 6 November 2019 Stoltenberg and the German permanent representative Hans-Dieter Lucas held a ceremony at the Berlin Wall Memorial, „these pieces of the Berlin Wall here at the entrance to the NATO Headquarters“.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Rede von Bundeskanzlerin Merkel bei der Einweihung des Berliner Mauerdenkmals am neuen NATO-Hauptquartier am 25. Mai 2017 in Brüssel — Die Bundesregierung ↗
The donor government's record of Chancellor Merkel's speech inaugurating the Berlin Wall memorial at the new NATO headquarters on 25 May 2017.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Brimming with history — deutschland.de ↗
The THW's account, published 26 May 2017: a request from the Federal Foreign Office in mid-March 2017 to move two sections of the Wall from Berlin and install them in front of the new NATO headquarters, the installation in April, 2.7 tonnes per section, and the letters GORB on one of them.
Press reportSource accessed 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.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17 · Source record 100
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.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17 · Source record 57
Source-reported segments: 2. This is not a separately verified count.
No photograph of this one has been published. If you have taken one, or know when it arrived or who gave it, we would like to hear. Contribute to this record