The record
Given to Usain Bolt by the mayor of Berlin after the 2009 world championships, painted with his own world record, and shipped to a Jamaican army base.
Usain Bolt left the 2009 world athletics championships in Berlin with three titles, two world records and a piece of the Berlin Wall, handed to him by the Governing Mayor, Klaus Wowereit. The fragment weighs 2.7 tonnes and stands 3.6 metres high, and until the border opened it was part of the Wall at Potsdamer Platz. The Leipzig artist Alban painted it in aerosol; the image, Breaking the Wall, shows Bolt just after his hundred-metre world record.
It went to Jamaica by ship, a three-week passage, and was formally handed over by Bolt himself on 10 February 2010 at Up-Park Camp in Kingston. The base is now the headquarters of the Jamaica Defence Force; until independence in 1962 it was the headquarters of the British army in Jamaica. The segment stands between the military museum and the library, near the main entrance. Alexandra Consten represented the German embassy at the ceremony, alongside the minister of culture and sport, Olivia Grange, and Major General Saunders, who thanked Berlin for the temporary loan and undertook to give the people of Jamaica and visitors from overseas access to it.
The word temporary is the Foundation's, and it is carried here rather than smoothed away: the record describes a loan, not a gift, and the object's long-term home is not settled.
How did it get here?
Given to Usain Bolt by the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, after the 2009 world athletics championships; from the Wall at Potsdamer Platz, painted by the Leipzig artist Alban.
Sources
Listed by the Federal Foundation as #164 and by the Berlin Wall Archive as #201.
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide, site entry ↗
The presentation of the fragment to Usain Bolt by Klaus Wowereit after the 2009 world championships, its 2.7 tonne weight and 3.6 metre height and Potsdamer Platz origin, the Breaking the Wall painting by the Leipzig artist Alban, the three-week sea passage, the handover by Bolt at Up-Park Camp on 10 February 2010, the base's history as British army headquarters until 1962, the siting between museum and library, and the remarks of Major General Saunders about the temporary loan.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17
Bolt’s Berlin Wall unveiled ... two-ton gift at Up Park Camp — Jamaica Gleaner ↗
11 February 2010: Wowereit’s gift to Bolt of 24 August 2009, a two-ton piece 12 feet tall and 3 feet wide decorated with Bolt’s image, was unveiled at its temporary home at the Military Museum and Library at Up Park Camp, with the Jamaica Defence Force accepting responsibility for preserving it.
Press reportSource accessed 2026-09-17
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide ↗
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 164
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 201
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