The record
Three segments painted by Berlin schoolchildren under Thierry Noir's eye in a Kreuzberg builders' yard, bought by Qatar and installed across two buildings in Education City.
Three segments of the Berlin Wall stand in Education City, the university campus west of Doha, and all three were painted by the same group of Berlin teenagers.
In 2007 pupils of the Carl-Zeiss-Oberschule in Berlin-Lichtenrade painted fifteen segments under the direction of Thierry Noir, in the Kreuzberg yard of the builders' merchant Dämmisol, which had bought the elements and paid for the school project. The pieces scattered from there. One that Noir painted himself was auctioned on a Berlin television programme in 2009 for a children's rehabilitation clinic and bought by the head of the Gegenbauer group, who put it outside his firm at Birkenwerder. Six of the pupils' segments were sold to the company Veloform when Dämmisol gave up the Kreuzberg site in 2008.
Qatar bought three of those. The first, painted with a coloured figure, was acquired by the Qatar Foundation from Veloform, on loan from the Qatar Museums Authority, and unveiled in the atrium of Georgetown University in Qatar on 11 December 2018; among those who spoke was the university's deputy dean Kai-Henrik Barth, who with his wife described growing up on opposite sides of the Wall. Two more, each painted with a large eye, were bought from Veloform by the German foreign ministry and given to Qatar during the German-Qatari cultural year: Sheikha Al-Mayassa, chair of the Qatar Museums Authority, had asked the German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel for pieces of the Wall during his visit to Doha in July 2017, and he handed them over symbolically in Berlin that November. They were installed in the entrance hall of an extension of the Qatar National Convention Centre and inaugurated in June 2019. Qatar understands them, the Foundation notes, as a statement against the blockade imposed on the emirate by several neighbouring states in 2017 and lifted at the beginning of 2021.
Two catalogue records cover these, a kilometre apart in Education City, and this account is attached to both. The Foundation publishes the same text on both of its site pages, so which record is the Georgetown atrium and which the convention centre cannot be settled from the source, and neither has been assigned one on a guess.
How did it get here?
Painted in 2007 by pupils of the Carl-Zeiss-Oberschule under Thierry Noir at the Dämmisol yard in Berlin-Kreuzberg, sold to Veloform in 2008, and acquired by the Qatar Foundation and the German foreign ministry between 2017 and 2019.
Sources & verification
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide, site entry ↗
The unveiling of a painted segment in the atrium of Georgetown University in Qatar on 11 December 2018 and the speakers including Kai-Henrik Barth, the 2007 Carl-Zeiss-Oberschule project with Thierry Noir at the Dämmisol yard and the fate of the fifteen segments, the sale of six to Veloform in 2008, the Qatar Foundation's acquisition, and the two further segments bought by the German foreign ministry, requested by Sheikha Al-Mayassa from Sigmar Gabriel in July 2017 and inaugurated at the Qatar National Convention Centre in June 2019.
Source accessed 2026-09-17
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide, second Doha site entry ↗
The Foundation's second Doha site entry, which carries the same text as the first and so does not distinguish the two sites.
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 254
Last verified: Not yet verified
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