The record
Two elements a recycling firm kept back from shredding the Wall in Berlin, made into the sculpture "Aufbruch" by Reimund Franke at the entrance to its harbour offices in 2008.
Remex, a disposal and recycling company based in the Düsseldorf harbour, was one of the firms that broke up the dismantled Wall in Berlin. The Westdeutsche Zeitung, writing on the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall in November 2019, had the story from two of its staff: the company won the disposal contract in 1991, built two purpose-made impact crushers that could take a whole element and reduce it to rubble in 25 seconds, and crushed something like a hundred of the Wall's 155 kilometres, most of the several hundred thousand tonnes going under Berlin's road paving. A few elements were kept.
Two of them stand at the firm's offices at Am Fallhammer 1 as an artwork. The paper's earlier report of 8 May 2008 says the sculptor Reimund Franke of Strümp had been commissioned to design the entrance of the administration building, that the managing director Michael Stoll, who had preserved seven pieces, initiated it, and that Franke chose two of the seven and watched them craned into place on the Hamburger Straße about a month before; an excavator with hydraulic shears cut one along a charcoal line he had drawn, exposing the reinforcing steel. He laid loose lumps before the left piece, for the crushing the firm had done, and set small green-patinated bronze figures climbing the right one, keeping them small so that the Wall and the division it stood for remained the point; the three terraces around them are gravelled in different colours and planted. He called the work "Aufbruch". In 2019 the company's authorised officer Berthold Heuser said passers-by still stop in front of it, which he can see from his office.
The Wall Net, a general reference, says the kept elements had been stored at the company's Recklinghausen headquarters and that two came to Düsseldorf in 2008.
How did it get here?
Kept by Remex from the elements it crushed in Berlin under its 1991 contract; two chosen by Reimund Franke from seven preserved pieces and installed as "Aufbruch" at the firm's harbour offices in spring 2008.
Sources
Listed by the Berlin Wall Archive as #106.
Warum Teile der Berliner Mauer in Düsseldorf stehen — Westdeutsche Zeitung, 9 November 2019 ↗
Two pieces made into an artwork stand at Remex in the harbour at Am Fallhammer 1; the company helped shred the dismantled elements in Berlin in a consortium, won the disposal contract in 1991, built two impact crushers that reduced an element in 25 seconds and crushed around a hundred of the Wall's 155 kilometres, mostly reused under Berlin paving; Berthold Heuser on honouring the firm's history; Reimund Franke commissioned in 2008 and made three bronze figures climbing the wall; the work is called "Aufbruch" and passers-by stop before it.
Press reportSource accessed 2026-09-17
„Ich habe Respekt vor dieser Mauer“ — Westdeutsche Zeitung, 8 May 2008 ↗
The Strümp artist Reimund Franke on "Aufbruch", set up in Düsseldorf about a month earlier at the entrance of Remex's administration building in the harbour; the firm had crushed parts of the Wall to ballast after 1989; initiated by managing director Michael Stoll, who had kept seven pieces; Franke chose two, which were craned in on the Hamburger Straße and cut with hydraulic shears along his charcoal line; rubble before the left piece, green-patinated bronze figures climbing the right; three planted terraces of coloured gravel.
Press reportSource accessed 2026-09-17
Düsseldorf, NW – am Hafen — The Wall Net ↗
Remex, one of the firms contracted by the Defence Ministry to demolish the Wall, kept some segments at its Recklinghausen headquarters; two came to Düsseldorf in 2008 and Reimund Franke made them into a monument in the entrance to the company site at the harbour.
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 106
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