The record
A segment carrying a portrait of Nelson Mandela, a local man's gift to the municipality, set up at the comprehensive school that opened the year he left for the East.
A piece of the Berlin Wall was unveiled in Schermbeck on 16 June 2015. Schermbeck Online, the local news site, reported it as a gift to the municipality from Elmar Prost, a Schermbeck man who moved away in 1989 — the year the Gesamtschule opened, while the Wall still stood. It carries a picture of Nelson Mandela, the South African opponent of apartheid. After the unveiling the guests let coloured balloons rise under the motto „Gegen Mauern in unseren Köpfen“, against the walls in our heads.
The Wall Net, a tertiary list citing the same local site, places the segment on the open grounds of the Gesamtschule and adds details the report read here does not carry: that it was put up twenty-five years after the official start of the dismantling of the inner-German border on 13 June 1990, that the head teacher, Norbert Hohmann, wanted it to be a memorial for everyone who loves freedom, and that the Mandela portrait was sprayed in 2014 by the Spanish artist Victor Landeta. The two disagree about where Prost went: to Berlin, says Schermbeck Online; to Königs Wusterhausen, just outside it, straight after the Wall opened, says The Wall Net.
How did it get here?
A gift to the municipality of Schermbeck from Elmar Prost, unveiled on 16 June 2015.
Sources
Listed by the Berlin Wall Archive as #373.
Teilstück der Berliner Mauer in Schermbeck enthüllt — Schermbeck Online ↗
A report of 16 June 2015, filed under the Gesamtschule Schermbeck: a piece of the Berlin Wall with a picture of Nelson Mandela was unveiled that day in Schermbeck, a gift to the municipality from Elmar Prost, who moved to Berlin in 1989, the year the Gesamtschule opened; afterwards visitors released balloons under the motto „Gegen Mauern in unseren Köpfen“.
Press reportSource accessed 2026-09-17
Schermbeck, NW — The Wall Net ↗
One segment on the open grounds of the Gesamtschule Schermbeck, set up 25 years after the dismantling of the inner-German border officially began on 13 June 1990; the head teacher Norbert Hohmann's words; given by Elmar Prost, who moved to Königs Wusterhausen in 1989; the Mandela portrait sprayed in 2014 by Victor Landeta.
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 373
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