The record
Rhineland-Palatinate's segment from the Axel Springer gift to the federal states, inaugurated by the Rhine bridge in September 2009, with a stele on the history of division added beside it that November.
An original segment stands by the Theodor-Heuss-Brücke in Mainz, one of the segments the publisher Axel Springer gave for the twentieth anniversary of the opening. It was inaugurated on 8 September 2009 in the presence of the minister-president of Rhineland-Palatinate, Kurt Beck. On 6 November 2009 the mayor, Jens Beutel, and Michael Ebling, then a state secretary, unveiled an information stele a few metres away: its front describes the events of 9 November 1989 and the inner-German border, its back sets out a chronicle of divided Germany from 1945 to 1990, and in its form it continues the city's series of Historisches Mainz markers.
The Wall Net dates the segment to November 2009 and says the site near the Rheingoldhalle was chosen deliberately: it was there, on 31 May 1989, that President George Bush said that the world had waited long enough, that the time was right, and that Europe must be free and undivided. The Bundesstiftung's memorials database does not mention the speech.
How did it get here?
A gift from Axel Springer AG, one of the segments the company gave to the German states for the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall.
Sources
Listed by the Berlin Wall Archive as #244.
Denkmal „Berliner Mauer“ und Informationsstele — Orte des Erinnerns ↗
An original segment of the Berlin Wall at the Theodor-Heuss-Brücke in Mainz, donated by the Axel Springer publishing house and inaugurated on 8 September 2009 in the presence of the minister-president Kurt Beck; on 6 November 2009 the mayor Jens Beutel and the then state secretary Michael Ebling unveiled an information stele a few metres away, with the events of 9 November 1989 and the inner-German border on the front and a chronicle of 1945–1990 on the back, continuing the Historisches Mainz series.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Mainz, RP — The Wall Net ↗
For the twentieth anniversary Axel Springer AG gave every federal state a segment; Rhineland-Palatinate's was set up in Mainz in November 2009, near the Rheingoldhalle, deliberately, because George Bush senior spoke there on 31 May 1989 of a Europe that must be free and undivided.
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 244
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