The record
One of two segments unveiled at Mexico City's German schools on the day of German reunification, bought from an advertisement in the Economist for 30,000 marks instead of 100,000.
Two segments were unveiled in Mexico City on 3 October 1990, the day the two German states were reunited — one at each of the two German schools of the Colegio Alemán Alexander von Humboldt, at Xochimilco in the south of the city and here at Lomas Verdes in the north. Founded in 1884, it is among the largest German schools abroad. The choir sang Beethoven's Ode to Joy in German, Mexican folk music was played, and the headmaster Philipp Fabry gave the address; the Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari and the education minister Manuel Bartlett Díaz attended, as did Hartmut Hempel, at that point still deputy mayor of East Berlin.
The idea came to Gerhart E. Reuss, chairman of the school board, while reading the Economist early in 1990: the West Berlin agency LeLé had advertised wall segments whose proceeds were to go to charitable purposes in the GDR. Reuss, a board member of Allianz's Mexican branch, found two sponsors in the German-Mexican entrepreneurs Erich and Kurt Vogt, and went to East Berlin to buy the pieces himself.
His account of the transaction is the clearest description in this catalogue of how the trade actually worked. The market price, he was told, was 100,000 marks for two blocks of 3.60 metres and two and a half tonnes each — but as these were for German schools, 30,000 would be accepted. The money would go to the Charité, and a certificate was promised and duly delivered at handover. He asked to choose the pieces himself. Of course, he was told: come back tomorrow and an officer of the People's Police will take you to the storage yard.
The catalogue holds a second record for this school under its archive listing, whose coordinates were withheld as demonstrably wrong — they fell in the state of Veracruz, 224 kilometres away. Both records are attached to this account.
A 2019 BBC Mundo report, republished in El Universal, confirms the pair at the two Humboldt schools and says they carry the heads Thierry Noir painted on Waldemarstraße.
How did it get here?
Bought from the West Berlin agency LeLé in 1990 by Gerhart E. Reuss for the Colegio Alemán Alexander von Humboldt, at a reduced price of 30,000 marks for two segments, with Erich and Kurt Vogt as sponsors; unveiled on 3 October 1990.
Sources
Listed by the Federal Foundation as #237 and by the Berlin Wall Archive as #255.
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide, site entry ↗
The two segments unveiled on 3 October 1990 at the Humboldt schools in Xochimilco and Lomas Verdes, the ceremony and its attendees including Carlos Salinas de Gortari and Hartmut Hempel, Gerhart E. Reuss's discovery of the LeLé advertisement in the Economist, the Vogt brothers' sponsorship, and Reuss's own account of the negotiation, the reduction from 100,000 to 30,000 marks, the Charité certificate and the visit to the storage yard.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17
30 años de la caída del Muro de Berlín: el extraño destino de algunos de sus trozos (BBC Mundo, republished by El Universal) ↗
Reports two Berlin Wall sections in Mexico City, by the Alexander von Humboldt schools in the north and south, carrying the heads painted by Thierry Noir on Waldemarstraße.
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 237
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 255
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