The record
Seven metres of painted Wall stood for some twenty-five years on a demolition contractor's yard in Breda, until five segments went to a museum at Best in 2023.
Toon Stolwerk's demolition firm in Breda kept a section of the Wall on its yard for most of a quarter of a century. Omroep Brabant described it in 2011 and again in August 2014 as about seven metres wide and more than three metres high, with graffiti added by various artists at the firm's request, and Stolwerk said hundreds of people a year came to look, some from Poland and Germany, school groups among them. His account of how it came to be there is that the firm helped to take the Wall down in 1989 because it had the only machine in Europe able to cut through its concrete and steel; the 2014 report quotes him saying the Russians asked him to. That is the firm's own telling, and nothing read here confirms it.
The piece is no longer on the yard. A submitted notice printed in 2023 by a local weekly in Son en Breugel says the five segments that reached the Museum Bevrijdende Vleugels at Best on 13 September 2023 had stood for many years on Stolwerk's yard on the Tilburgseweg in Breda, and that the Heezen family had taken them over by agreement with heirs of the Stolwerk family. The museum has its own page in this atlas. The news reports give one stretch seven metres wide and the notice gives five segments; the sources do not say how the two descriptions fit, and the record does not guess.
How did it get here?
Said by the firm to have come from the 1989 demolition, in which it took part; later owned by the Heezen family, who passed five segments to the museum at Best in 2023.
Sources
Listed by the Berlin Wall Archive as #48.
Sloopbedrijf Breda werkte mee aan val Berlijnse muur — Omroep Brabant ↗
11 August 2011: the Breda demolition firm Stolwerk keeps a section of the Wall, seven metres wide and over three metres high with graffiti by various artists made at its request, on its premises; the firm says its cutting machine helped to demolish the Wall in 1989; visitors, including school groups, still come.
Press reportSource accessed 2026-09-17
Berlijnse Muur voor het eerst naar Nederland, of toch niet? ‘Hij staat al jaren hier in Breda hoor’ — Omroep Brabant ↗
28 August 2014: the piece has stood on Toon Stolwerk's property in Breda for almost twenty-five years, seven metres wide and over three metres high; he says the Russians asked his firm to help because it alone in Europe had a machine that could cut the Wall's concrete and steel; hundreds of people a year come to see it.
Press reportSource accessed 2026-09-17
(Regio) Uniek stuk Berlijnse muur komt naar museum Bevrijdende Vleugels in Best — DeMooiSonenBreugelKrant ↗
A submitted notice of 15 September 2023: five Berlin Wall segments reached the Museum Bevrijdende Vleugels at Best on 13 September 2023 from the Heezen family, who had taken them over from heirs of the Stolwerk family; they had stood for many years on Stolwerk's yard on the Tilburgseweg in Breda.
Press reportSource 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 48
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