The record
Seven original segments outside the city museum, two with Kiddy Citny's king's heads from the Waldemarstraße frieze and one with a door the border troops used.
Seven original segments stand in front of the Märkisches Museum, the Stadtmuseum Berlin's main house, with a listening station beside them. They are part of the museum's outdoor exhibition and open free every day of the year — which matters, because the building behind them closed at the end of December 2022 for a renovation expected to last years.
Two of the seven carry original paint. One shows a king's head by Kiddy Citny, painted in 1985 as part of a long frieze on Waldemarstraße in Kreuzberg; the museum points out that the pieces now stand about a kilometre north of where they stood in the Wall. Another has a flap built into it: a door that let the GDR border troops through to the western side.
The museum credits the segments to the generous gift of a private citizen and does not name him. The Berlin Wall Foundation's directory of surviving traces, which lists them as MAU-703, names the buyer as Detlef Gallinge and says he acquired them at the wall auction of 1990 before giving them to the Stadtmuseum. There was more than one sale of painted segments that year, including the one at Monte Carlo in June, and neither source says which.
Citny's heads turn up elsewhere in this catalogue, carried off in single slabs to other countries. Here two of them have come home to the city museum, a kilometre from the street they were painted on.
How did it get here?
Bought at a 1990 wall auction by Detlef Gallinge, according to the Berlin Wall Foundation, and given by him to the Stadtmuseum Berlin; the museum credits a private citizen's gift. Originally part of the Wall around Waldemarstraße in Kreuzberg.
Sources & verification
Mauerstücke — Stadtmuseum Berlin ↗
Seven original wall segments and a listening station in front of the Märkisches Museum, free to visit every day all year; two with original paint, one showing the king's head Kiddy Citny painted in 1985 as part of a long frieze on Waldemarstraße; another with a flap giving the GDR border troops access to the West; standing about a kilometre north of their original position; the gift of a private citizen.
Source accessed 2026-09-17
Märkisches Museum schließt 2023 für mehrjährige Erneuerung — Stadtmuseum Berlin ↗
The Märkisches Museum remained open to the public until 30 December 2022 before closing for a renovation lasting several years.
Source accessed 2026-09-17
MAU-703 Märkisches Museum — MAUERSPUREN, Stiftung Berliner Mauer ↗
Seven wall elements acquired by Detlef Gallinge at the wall auction of 1990 and given by him to the Stadtmuseum Berlin; two painted by Kiddy Citny, and one of the other five containing an original maintenance door of the Grenzmauer 75; catalogued as MAU-703.
Source accessed 2026-09-17
Chronik der Mauer — June 1990 ↗
A further auction of painted wall segments held at the Metropole Palace Hotel in Monte Carlo on 23 June 1990.
Source accessed 2026-09-17
Last verified: Not yet verified
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