The record
A cross made from fragments sold by the gram at a church bazaar, the proceeds going to famine relief in Africa.
When the Protestant community centre in Nagoya was opened, it had four crosses: one on the roof, one in the prayer room, one beside the entrance, and a small wooden one handed to every visitor. The cross beside the entrance is set into the wall and made of tiny fragments of the Berlin Wall.
The idea was the missionary Erhard Hottenbacher's, who led the congregation for many years, and his account of how the fragments got to Japan is the reason this record matters more than its size suggests. In the autumn of 1989 the congregation held its annual charity bazaar in what was then a small wooden chapel, popular locally for its genuinely German goods — one of several ways, along with German lessons, concerts and German evenings, of interesting Japanese neighbours in the country. A few weeks before the bazaar the border opened. They saw a newspaper photograph of the German foreign minister Genscher handing the American president a stone from the Wall, and asked their son Friedemann, then a student in Berlin, to send some stones and fragments. They sold them at the bazaar by the gram. The rush, Hottenbacher says, was overwhelming, and the proceeds went in full to a Christian famine relief organisation working in Africa.
Most of this catalogue records tonnes of concrete moved by governments and companies. This is the other half of the dispersal: a suitcase of rubble, sold by weight at a parish sale on the other side of the world, and set afterwards into a wall as a cross.
How did it get here?
Fragments collected in Berlin in late 1989 by Friedemann Hottenbacher and sent to his parents' congregation in Nagoya, where they were sold by the gram at a charity bazaar for African famine relief.
Sources & verification
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide, site entry ↗
The four crosses at the Nagoya community centre and the one beside the entrance made of wall fragments, Erhard Hottenbacher's authorship of the idea, and his own account of the autumn 1989 bazaar, the Genscher photograph, the fragments sent by his son from Berlin, their sale by the gram and the donation of the proceeds to African famine relief.
Source 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.
Source accessed 2026-09-17 · Source record 249
Last verified: Not yet verified
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