The record
Perhaps the first segment set up anywhere outside Berlin, fetched from the city by a village stonemason with a borrowed lorry and unveiled on the green in April 1990 with the president of the Bundestag present.
Silberhausen is a village in the Eichsfeld, now part of the town of Dingelstädt, a few kilometres from where the inner-German border ran. Its stonemason, Michael Spitzenberg, had had to help build the border fence there as a young man. In early December 1989 he went to Berlin with his tools to chip at the Wall at the Sonnenallee crossing, was shocked by its scale, and decided on the spot to bring a segment home — not everyone, he said later, could go to Berlin and look at it. By the account the Federal Foundation records, he organised it with no money: countless telephone calls and letters, chocolates for a telephonist at Limex, and some sleight of hand. In early February 1990 he drove to Berlin in a borrowed lorry to collect the element he had been allotted, no. 196. It had suffered so badly from the souvenir hunters that another was loaded instead, and it stood at first in Spitzenberg's garden.
He cut a sundial into the eastern face, with the points of GDR history he thought mattered and the dimensions of the barrier around West Berlin — 106 km of concrete wall, 66.5 km of mesh fence, 302 watchtowers, 259 dog runs, 20 bunkers. The western face keeps its original paint. The mayor gave him a lease on exactly three square metres of the village green. On 29 April 1990, at the invitation of the village brass band, guests from the GDR and the Federal Republic gathered with the villagers for the unveiling; Rita Süssmuth, president of the Bundestag, gave the political address, Rainer Hildebrandt of the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie museum was there, and two lime trees were planted beside it as a symbol of life. A slab in front reads „Den Opfern zum Gedenken, den Lebenden zur Mahnung“, and a stone „Nach 43 Jahren SED Ade!“.
The Foundation calls it probably the first original segment set up outside Berlin and leaves open whether it really was. When Der Spiegel wrote about him in 2020, Spitzenberg remarked that Germany's true centre, its point of balance, lies exactly where the memorial stands. His „Mauerfilm“ drew enough interest that he and the town's senior citizens' council arranged a second screening, which he introduces himself, for 9 November 2026.
How did it get here?
Collected from Berlin by the Silberhausen stonemason Michael Spitzenberg in February 1990, in place of the element no. 196 he had been allotted; donated and shaped by him and unveiled on the village green on 29 April 1990.
Sources
Listed by the Berlin Wall Archive as #390.
Ortschaft Silberhausen – als Teil der Stadt Dingelstädt — Stadt Dingelstädt ↗
In 1990 a segment of the Berlin Wall was set up as a memorial on the Anger, the village green, in Silberhausen, part of the town of Dingelstädt.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Filmvorführung des „Mauerfilms“ am Tag des Mauerfalls — Stadt Dingelstädt ↗
On 29 April 1990, at the invitation of the Silberhausen brass band, guests from the GDR and the Federal Republic and many villagers gathered for the unveiling of the 'Berliner Mauer-Denkmal'; Prof. Dr. Rita Süssmuth gave the official political address at the sports ground; Michael Spitzenberg donated the memorial and gave it its present form; because of the interest the year before, he and the town's senior citizens' council offer a second screening of the „Mauerfilm“ on 9 November 2026, which he introduces in person.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Denkmal Berliner Mauer — Orte des Erinnerns ↗
Probably the first original segment, unveiled on the village green on 29 April 1990 in the presence of Rita Süssmuth and Rainer Hildebrandt, with two lime trees planted; Michael Spitzenberg's trip to the Sonnenallee crossing in December 1989, his collection of a substitute for element no. 196 in February 1990 with a borrowed lorry, the sundial on the east face, the original paint on the west, the lease of three square metres, the 2020 Spiegel article, and the inscriptions on the segment, slab and stone.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Die Berliner Mauer in Deutschland — Die Berliner Mauer in der Welt ↗
An essay by Tina Schaller and Moritz Reininghaus for the Federal Foundation, telling the same story with Spitzenberg's own words — that not everyone could go to Berlin to see it — and his calls, letters and chocolates for a telephonist at Limex; in 2020 he was looking for backers to preserve the memorial; whether it really was the first segment set up outside Berlin remains unanswered.
Inventory listingSource 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 390
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