The record
A 3.5-metre segment set up in the garden of the Cistercian monastery and consecrated on 13 September 2015 as a memorial for peace and justice, within an ensemble of glass stelae.
The Diocese of Essen announced on 2 September 2015 that a 3.5-metre piece of concrete weighing over three tonnes and painted with graffiti, a piece of the Berlin Wall, was to be consecrated on Sunday 13 September at 11.30 beside the pilgrimage church of St Marien in Bochum-Stiepel, at the Cistercian monastery on the Varenholt, after a festive service; Abbot Dr Maximilian Heim OCist, local politicians and the craft guilds were expected. The piece is set into an overall artistic concept in glass and is meant both as an artwork and as a memorial for peace and justice, to show that the walls and conflicts of today can be overcome.
The monastery's own news pages record the segment standing by the beginning of September 2015, with the workmen still finishing before the consecration, and from March 2016 say that visitors have been able to look at a piece of the Berlin Wall there since September 2015. A separate site, stiepeler-mauer.de, was set up for it; it could not be reached in October 2026.
The Wall Net, a general reference, adds what the institutional pages do not: that the segment came from the Potsdamer Platz, that the Bochum Cistercians sought one immediately after the fall of the Wall and that it lay in store in Berlin for many years, that it was given by the entrepreneurs Anneliese and Werner Deschauer — Deschauer fled the GDR in the 1950s and built a chain of food shops in Dortmund — and that the three glass stelae of equal height around it recall present-day crises, the whole headed with the psalm "Mit meinem Gott überwinde ich Mauern". It gives the weight as 2.5 tonnes where the diocese says over three.
How did it get here?
From the Potsdamer Platz and given by Anneliese and Werner Deschauer, by The Wall Net's account; set up in the monastery garden in September 2015 and consecrated on 13 September 2015.
Sources
Listed by the Berlin Wall Archive as #39.
Mahnmal für Frieden und Gerechtigkeit — Bistum Essen, 2 September 2015 ↗
The diocese's announcement: a 3.5-metre, more than three-tonne concrete piece of the Berlin Wall painted with graffiti, set into an artistic concept in glass, to be consecrated on 13 September 2015 at 11.30 beside the Wallfahrtskirche St. Marien at the Cistercian monastery on the Varenholt in Bochum-Stiepel, with Abbot Dr Maximilian Heim OCist, local politicians and craft guilds expected; an artwork and a memorial for peace and justice.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Das Segment der Berliner Mauer steht — Vorfreude auf Einweihung — Kloster Stiepel ↗
The monastery's own note that the segment was standing by 2 September 2015 with work still to finish, and that Abbot Maximilian Heim would consecrate the memorial on Sunday 13 September 2015 at 11.30, meant as a warning against misguided ideologies of every kind.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Neue Homepage über unsere Stiepeler Mauer — Kloster Stiepel, 2 March 2016 ↗
Since September 2015 every visitor to the monastery can look at a piece of the Berlin Wall there; a dedicated site, stiepeler-mauer.de, was launched for it.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Bochum, NW — The Wall Net ↗
One segment from the Potsdamer Platz at Kloster Stiepel: the Bochum Cistercians sought a segment immediately after the fall of the Wall, it lay in store in Berlin for many years and was set up and blessed in the monastery garden in September 2015, framed by three glass stelae recalling present crises under the psalm "Mit meinem Gott überwinde ich Mauern"; given by Anneliese and Werner Deschauer, who fled the GDR in the 1950s and built a food-shop chain in Dortmund; photograph credited to Kloster Stiepel.
General referenceSource accessed 2026-09-17
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 39
Source-reported segments: 1. 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