The record
Elements that lay forgotten twice — on Eternit's Berlin works and then at its Westphalian plant — before the firm stood them up near its works entrance in 2011, graffiti side out.
Eternit's main works stood in Berlin-Rudow, hard against the border, and the Wall went up beside it in August 1961. Die Glocke reported in August 2011, fifty years on, how part of it came to stand on the company's ground in Neubeckum instead.
By the deputy works manager's account, Eternit took the elements down itself — the paper gives the year as 1998, in a sentence that also places it at the fall of the Iron Curtain — and they then lay forgotten on the Berlin site until the Rudow works closed in 2001, when the clearance brought them back to light and they were sent to Neubeckum. There they were forgotten again, unloaded with the grey east side up, until they had to be moved and the other face turned out to be covered in graffiti, with a stylised peace sign by an unknown painter at its centre.
The town of Beckum was offered them, and a council committee agreed to set them up beside the Werse cycle path. That never happened: the town told the paper the L-shaped segments could not be made stable. So at the works family day in May 2011 the company stood the roughly four-metre elements up on its own site, not far from the works entrance, with a coating against weathering. Souvenir hunters had already chipped at them.
The Wall Net counts four segments; the newspaper gives no number.
How did it get here?
Taken down by Eternit at its Rudow works in Berlin, kept there until the works closed in 2001, moved to the Neubeckum plant and set up on the works site in May 2011.
Sources
Listed by the Berlin Wall Archive as #285.
Wie ein Mauer-Stück nach Neubeckum kam — Die Glocke ↗
A report of 12 August 2011: parts of the Wall from beside Eternit's main works in Berlin-Rudow stand on the Eternit site in Neubeckum, the roughly four-metre fragments not far from the works entrance; by the deputy works manager's account Eternit removed them itself ('1998, beim Fall des Eisernen Vorhangs'), they lay forgotten on the Berlin site until the Rudow works closed in 2001, were moved to Neubeckum and forgotten again until the graffiti side, with a peace sign by an unknown artist, was found when they were moved; a plan agreed with the town of Beckum to set them up by the Werse cycle path failed because the L-shaped segments could not be made stable; they were set up on the works site at the family day in May, coated against weathering.
Press reportSource accessed 2026-09-17
Neubeckum, NW — The Wall Net ↗
Four segments at the Eternit works in Neubeckum, found on the Rudow site when it closed in 2001, rediscovered with their graffiti in 2011 and set up on the works grounds.
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 285
Source-reported segments: 4. 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