The record
The third of the slabs a German district gave its Polish partner county in 2009, in a town hoping the monument would bring visitors to a remote border region.
One of three monuments that travelled from the German district of Oberhavel to the Polish county of Biała Podlaska at the end of March 2009, on the initiative of the district administrator Karl-Heinz Schröter. The others went to the commune of Terespol, where Lech Wałęsa attended an unveiling in August of that year.
The Polish county administrator, Tadeusz Łazowski, was candid about what he wanted from them: more tourist interest in a region that lies well off any route. That is worth recording plainly, because most of the catalogue's monuments are explained only in the language of commemoration, and the two motives usually travel together.
The concrete itself came from the border between the Oberhavel municipality of Glienicke and the Berlin district of Reinickendorf — the ring around West Berlin rather than the inner-city Wall.
A national paper, reporting the gift in March 2009, counted two sections rather than three — one for Międzyrzec Podlaski and one for Kobylany — and recorded the Biała Podlaska mayor's dry remark that Poland had had Solidarity before the Wall came down.
How did it get here?
A gift from the German district of Oberhavel; from the Glienicke–Reinickendorf section of the border.
Sources
Listed by the Federal Foundation as #274.
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide, site entry ↗
The slab set up at Międzyrzec Podlaski as one of the three 2009 Oberhavel gifts, Tadeusz Łazowski's hope of attracting tourism, and the Glienicke–Reinickendorf origin.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17
Berliński mur stanie na wschodniej granicy ↗
Dziennik, 18 March 2009: two sections of the Wall weighing 3.2 tonnes together, a gift from Karl-Heinz Schröter, head of the partner district of Oberhavel, to be set up in Międzyrzec Podlaski and in Kobylany near Terespol within days, with the county head Tadeusz Łazowski and the mayor of Biała Podlaska, Andrzej Czapski, who remarked that Poland had Solidarity before the Wall fell.
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 274
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