The record
Seven segments bought privately after the Wall came down, stored for twenty years in a gravel works, and set up as a memorial on the village square in 2009.
Seven segments stand on the Rathausplatz in Diedorf, a village of a few thousand people nine kilometres west of Augsburg, near the hall the Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung calls the Schmuttertalhalle and the Wikipedia list the Schmutterhalle. The federal foundation's memorials database tells how they got there: Matthias Maresch, an Augsburg businessman originally from Thuringia, bought the graffitied segments shortly after the Peaceful Revolution and kept them for almost twenty years in a gravel works in Diedorf. On the initiative of the deputy district administrator Max Strehle they were made into a memorial with information boards and unveiled on 9 November 2009, the twentieth anniversary of the opening.
Seven elements is a larger run than most national capitals in this catalogue hold, which is a good illustration of how little the distribution had to do with significance: the segments went where someone turned up with money and a lorry, and then sat in a gravel pit for two decades.
How did it get here?
Bought by Matthias Maresch shortly after the Peaceful Revolution — for 2,000 Deutsche Marks, by the Wikipedia list's account, which also records them as still his — stored in a Diedorf gravel works for almost twenty years, and set up as a memorial on 9 November 2009.
Sources
Listed by the Berlin Wall Archive as #97.
List of Berlin Wall segments — Wikipedia ↗
Seven segments near the Schmutterhalle, owned by Mathias Maresch, bought for DM 2,000.
General referenceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Denkmal „Berliner Mauer“ — Orte des Erinnerns ↗
Seven original graffitied segments on the Rathausplatz near the Schmuttertalhalle, bought shortly after the Peaceful Revolution by the Augsburg businessman Matthias Maresch, originally from Thuringia, stored for almost twenty years in a Diedorf gravel works, and set up as a memorial with information boards on 9 November 2009 on the initiative of the deputy district administrator Max Strehle.
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 97
Source-reported segments: 7. This is not a separately verified count.
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