The record
A segment from Potsdamer Platz, taken over in 1990 by the institute behind Kassel's Museum für Sepulkralkultur and set up outside the building in 1991.
Hans-Kurt Boehlke, founding director of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Friedhof und Denkmal (AFD) and of its Museum für Sepulkralkultur on the Weinberg in Kassel, records in his history of the institute, published by kassel university press in 2007, that on 21 December 1990, after preparations by Wolfgang Heinrich Fischer of Berlin, the AFD agreed with Frau Lacroix of the winding-up company LeLé to take over an original segment of the Berlin Wall against a donation receipt. LeLé acted for the Ministry of Defence, which had become responsible for the border wall along with the former GDR border troops. As the museum building was not far enough advanced, the handover and transport were set for the end of March or early April 1991.
In 1991 the segment, painted with graffiti, was brought from an interim store in Berlin by a heavy transport that the manufacturer Reinhard Hübner, a friend of Boehlke's, arranged and paid for, and lifted onto the museum's grounds by a crane he also paid for. It was not set up in the lobby as first planned, but marked the intended outdoor entrance to a planned lapidarium. The museum's exhibition concept, printed in the same volume, names it as the segment from Potsdamer Platz, to stand outside because of its size.
Nothing later that mentions the segment has been read, and the museum's own pages do not. The museum has announced that it will be rebuilt from 2027 and must close for a few years while the work is done.
How did it get here?
From Potsdamer Platz, according to the museum's exhibition concept; taken over from the winding-up company LeLé against a donation receipt on 21 December 1990 and brought to Kassel in 1991 at the expense of Reinhard Hübner.
Sources
Listed by the Berlin Wall Archive as #195.
Hans-Kurt Boehlke, Zum Zentralinstitut und Museum für Sepulkralkultur (kassel university press, 2007) ↗
The founding director's history of the institute: on 21 December 1990 the AFD agreed with Frau Lacroix of the winding-up company LeLé (acting for the Ministry of Defence) to take over an original Wall segment against a donation receipt, arranged by Wolfgang Heinrich Fischer, Berlin, with handover set for March/April 1991; in 1991 the graffitied segment came from an interim store in Berlin by heavy transport arranged and paid for by Reinhard Hübner, was craned onto the museum's grounds and marked the planned outdoor entrance to the lapidarium instead of standing in the lobby; the exhibition concept names the segment from Potsdamer Platz, to stand outside because of its size.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Kontakt — Museum für Sepulkralkultur ↗
The museum's address: Weinbergstraße 25–27, 34117 Kassel.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Neukonzeption — Museum für Sepulkralkultur ↗
The museum will soon have to close for a few years for rebuilding.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Dauerpräsentation — Museum für Sepulkralkultur ↗
From 2027 the museum will be rebuilt and its permanent exhibition reconceived.
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 195
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