The record
A 650-kilogram piece that East German border guards traded for beer in the days after the border opened, the leavers' monument of a grammar-school year of 1990, lent to the town and kept behind glass since vandals broke it.
The piece stands in the Menzerpark, framed in thick concrete behind a glass wall. It weighs 650 kilograms and comes from the West Berlin face of the Wall.
The Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung has told how it got here twice, and the two accounts agree on the outline. The leavers' year of 1990 at the town's grammar school, then the Gymnasium Neckargemünd and now the Max-Born-Gymnasium, wanted a piece of the Wall as a leavers' monument; the first idea, the 2018 report says, had been to sell it to Michael Jackson. In the first days after the border opened, a former classmate who had moved to Berlin went with friends from his school there onto ground that was still guarded. Turned away once by the West Berlin police, they asked East German border guards on a watchtower, who brought a piece to the border in exchange for beer — a crate of it in the paper's 2014 telling, a few bottles in its 2018 one. In Neckargemünd it was painted and set up in the school yard. When the head teacher no longer wanted it there, the year offered it to the town as a permanent loan, and the mayor, Oskar Schuster, had it put in the Menzerpark.
In September 2013 vandals tore it from its anchoring and it broke. The town had it restored: the pieces were glued onto a cast concrete slab with two U-profiles, the whole now weighing about two tonnes, and it was set back in its old place on 21 November 2014 for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening of the Wall, with a former head of the Federal Intelligence Service among the guests. By 2018 it had been enclosed in concrete and glass, and its painting renewed under one of the original leavers.
How did it get here?
Obtained from East German border guards in the first days after the border opened by Berlin school friends of a Neckargemünd pupil, for the leavers' year of 1990 at the Gymnasium Neckargemünd; shown in the school yard, then lent to the town, which set it in the Menzerpark. Restored after vandalism in 2013 and re-erected on 21 November 2014.
Sources
Listed by the Berlin Wall Archive as #283.
Die Berliner Mauer steht wieder - aber in Neckargemünd — Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung ↗
A report of 24 November 2014: the original piece of the Wall, from its West Berlin side, back in its old place in the Menzerpark since the previous Friday, after vandals tore it from its anchoring in September 2013 and it broke; the town had it restored and re-erected for the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. The leavers' year of 1990 of today's Max-Born-Gymnasium, then the Gymnasium Neckargemünd, got the 650 kg piece from GDR border soldiers for a crate of West German beer, painted it and set it up as a leavers' monument on the school grounds, then offered it to the town as a permanent loan; the mayor Oskar Schuster had it set up in the Menzerpark. A former head of the Federal Intelligence Service attended; the fragments were glued onto a cast concrete slab with two U-profiles and the whole weighs about two tonnes.
Press reportSource accessed 2026-09-17
Menzerpark statt Michael Jackson — Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung ↗
A report of 17 December 2018: the 650 kg piece in the Menzerpark, protected behind a glass wall and framed in thick concrete; the original plan was to sell it to Michael Jackson; a former Neckargemünd pupil who had moved to Berlin and friends from the Schiller-Gymnasium there, turned away once by the West Berlin police, got East German border guards on a watchtower to bring a piece to the border for a few bottles of beer in the first days after the Wall opened; it was painted and set up in the school yard until the head teacher no longer wanted it, then lent to the town under the mayor Oskar Schuster; damaged by vandalism, now encased in concrete behind glass, its painting renewed under one of the 1990 leavers.
Press reportSource 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 283
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