The record
A Ben Wagin memorial unveiled outside Deutsche Welle on 21 December 2009, on the initiative of two restaurateurs who lent it to the broadcaster.
The site is the Schürmann-Bau, the seat of Deutsche Welle. Bonn was the capital of the Federal Republic for the whole life of the Wall, and has less of it in public space than a good many small towns in this catalogue.
Wagin is the artist behind the Parliament of Trees on the former border strip in Berlin, which makes this the second of his works here. It was initiated not by the city or the state but by two restaurateurs, Friedel Drautzburg and Harald Grunert, who founded the Ständige Vertretung — a Bonn establishment named after the permanent mission that stood in for an embassy between two German states that did not recognise each other — and who started the wall project together with Wagin.
The date was chosen. The segment was unveiled on Monday 21 December 2009, twenty years to the day after the GDR's defence minister formally lifted the order to shoot at the border. It is an original element 3.60 m high, and carries Wagin's lettering TODES MAUER KRIEG in black on white. The restaurateurs' own page says it was the first piece of their project and that they lent it to Deutsche Welle; the Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung's memorials database records it as a permanent loan to the broadcaster. The photographer who recorded it in 2020 called it the only wall element in public space in Bonn.
How did it get here?
An original segment designed by Ben Wagin for a project he started with Friedel Drautzburg and Harald Grunert, founders of the Ständige Vertretung; unveiled on 21 December 2009 and lent by the two restaurateurs to Deutsche Welle.
Sources
Listed by the Berlin Wall Archive as #40.
2020-03-15-bonn-kurt-schumacher-strasse-3-deutsche-welle-berliner-mauer-02.jpg — Wikimedia Commons ↗
The photographer's record of the memorial: made in 2009 by Ben Wagin for Drautzburg and Grunert, at the Schürmann-Bau, and the only wall element in public space in Bonn.
PhotographSource accessed 2026-09-17
Denkmal „Berliner Mauer“ — Orte des Erinnerns ↗
An original 3.60 m segment unveiled in front of Deutsche Welle's headquarters on 21 December 2009, twenty years to the day after the GDR lifted the order to shoot; given by the restaurateurs Friedel Drautzburg and Harald Grunert, designed by Ben Wagin with the lettering TODES MAUER KRIEG, and a permanent loan to Deutsche Welle.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Mauerprojekt von Ben Wagin — Ständige Vertretung ↗
The donors' own page: the StäV founders Drautzburg and Grunert started the wall project with Ben Wagin, the first piece was unveiled in front of the Schürmann-Bau, Deutsche Welle's building in Bonn, on Monday 21 December 2009 at 10.30, and it was lent to Deutsche Welle.
Institutional sourceSource 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 40
Source-reported segments: 1. This is not a separately verified count.
Know more about this piece — when it arrived, who gave it, what the plaque says? Contribute to this record