The record
One of two segments IBM set up outside its Karl-Arnold-Platz offices in 1992; in 2023 it stood wrapped on the building site of the former IBM grounds, barely visible from a footbridge.
The Düsseldorf news site VierNull went looking for the piece in May 2023 and found it on the building site of the former IBM grounds between the Kennedydamm and the Karl-Arnold-Platz in Golzheim: a lump of concrete sprayed with red graffiti and a pair of wide eyes, with a plaque at its foot reading "Denkmal", at 51°14'46.1"N 6°46'17.2"E, about 250 metres north of where the Kennedydamm meets the Kaiserswerther Straße. The writer had first come across it in spring 2021, when the site was not yet fenced; by 2023 it could just be made out from the footbridge over the Kennedydamm at the end of the Hans-Böckler-Straße, and had lately been wrapped for protection, which the site reads as a sign that it is to be shown properly again.
The city archive supplied the origin: the Westdeutsche Zeitung of 1 December 1992 printed a photograph of two segments of the Berlin Wall that IBM had set up the day before in front of its Düsseldorf branch on the Karl-Arnold-Platz, the company and its then manager Hans-Olaf Henkel wanting to recall the fall of the Wall and the end of Germany's division and to express a bond with Berlin.
The Wall Net, a general reference, says Henkel, who ran IBM Germany at the time of the fall of the Wall, had a segment set up at the Stuttgart and Düsseldorf sites and keeps another at his country house in France, and that the Düsseldorf pieces were "reportedly dismantled". VierNull found one of the two still there; what became of the other is not said.
How did it get here?
Set up by IBM Deutschland on 30 November 1992 in front of its branch on the Karl-Arnold-Platz on Hans-Olaf Henkel's initiative; left on the site after IBM's departure.
Sources
Listed by the Berlin Wall Archive as #107.
Warum ein Stück Berliner Mauer auf einer Baustelle in Düsseldorf steht — VierNull, 15 May 2023 ↗
A piece of the Berlin Wall with red graffiti and a "Denkmal" plaque on the building site of the former IBM grounds between Kennedydamm and Karl-Arnold-Platz in Golzheim, at 51°14'46.125"N 6°46'17.244"E, barely visible from the footbridge over the Kennedydamm, lately wrapped for protection; the Westdeutsche Zeitung of 1 December 1992 reported IBM setting up two segments the day before in front of its branch on the Karl-Arnold-Platz, IBM and Hans-Olaf Henkel recalling the fall of the Wall and the end of division. These facts are in the freely readable part of the article; the rest is behind a paywall.
Press reportSource accessed 2026-09-17
Düsseldorf, NW – IBM Zentrale — The Wall Net ↗
On Hans-Olaf Henkel's initiative a segment was set up in front of IBM's Stuttgart and Düsseldorf sites and another stands at his country house in France; the Stuttgart campus was given up in 2009 and the Düsseldorf segments were reportedly dismantled; photograph by courtesy of Thierry Noir.
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 107
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