The record
Three elements at the gate of the East Berlin engineering works whose own factory wall became part of the border.
Three relocated elements stand at the entrance to the former Bergmann-Borsig works in Wilhelmsruh, now PankowPark. The Berlin Wall Foundation lists them as MAU-717 and records that they once enclosed the works grounds.
That is less strange than it sounds, because at Bergmann-Borsig the factory and the border were the same line. VEB Bergmann-Borsig made products the GDR regarded as of state importance, and when the border was closed on 13 August 1961 it became a border works: some two kilometres of its factory wall became part of the division itself, with Reinickendorf on the other side. About 150 metres of the later wall along the site, reinforced-concrete posts with slabs slid in between, is a listed monument, and the Senate's culture department says plainly what it was for — not only to stop people crossing, but to protect the plant and prevent industrial espionage.
Most records in this catalogue are the Wall moved somewhere to mean something. These three have hardly moved at all; they stand at the gate of the works they were built to close.
The Foundation's entry for three elements on the north bank of the Moabit Spree bend, MAU-724, carries word for word the same description as this one. No independent source puts Bergmann-Borsig elements in Moabit, and it is almost certainly a copying slip in the directory, so that entry is not attached to anything here.
How did it get here?
Relocated elements that formerly enclosed the Bergmann-Borsig works grounds, now at the site entrance.
Sources & verification
MAU-717 Bergmann-Borsig — MAUERSPUREN, Stiftung Berliner Mauer ↗
Three relocated wall elements at the entrance to the Bergmann-Borsig works in Pankow, which formerly enclosed the works grounds; catalogued as MAU-717.
Source accessed 2026-09-17
Pressemitteilung vom 02.08.2021 — Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Berlin ↗
A listed wall about 150 metres long along the industrial site in Wilhelmsruh, of narrow reinforced-concrete posts with broad concrete slabs slid between them, which was meant not only to prevent border crossings but to protect the installations of VEB Bergmann-Borsig, a maker of products of state importance, and prevent industrial espionage; the site is now PankowPark.
Source accessed 2026-09-17
Tunnel Bergmann-Borsig-Werke — tunnelfluchten.de ↗
With the building of the Wall on 13 August 1961 VEB Bergmann-Borsig became a border works, and 2,008 metres of its factory wall became directly part of the German-German border between Reinickendorf and Wilhelmsruh.
Source accessed 2026-09-17
Last verified: Not yet verified
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