The record
The segment a Michigan grocer went looking for because a news photograph showed his own name sprayed on it.
On 13 November 1989 the Times reported on the opening of the first new crossing at Potsdamer Platz. Several segments had been lifted out of the Wall in front of the world's press, and one of those left standing had the word Meijer plainly painted on it.
Fred Meijer, the Michigan grocery magnate of Dutch descent, saw the picture and decided he wanted his piece. He contacted the Berlin Wall Commemorative Group, the New Jersey company handling the sale of wall segments in the United States for the GDR trade firm Limex, and drove to New Jersey, where he actually managed to find it. He bought two more while he was there, and gave those to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and to Grand Valley State University. The load reached Grand Rapids in March 1991 and was handed to the museum administration; the segment went on display in the entrance of the Van Andel Museum in 1994.
The city owes Meijer more than the three segments — there is also a Meijer garden and sculpture park, a Meijer campus at Grand Valley State University, and a street named after him — but this is the one with the story, and it is a good illustration of how much of the dispersal was driven by individuals recognising something of their own in the photographs.
This record and the Ford Library record were held back for a time as two unidentified listings a few hundred metres apart on Pearl Street, where both museums stand. The Federal Foundation's entries name them.
How did it get here?
Bought in New Jersey from the Berlin Wall Commemorative Group by Fred Meijer, who recognised his own name in a press photograph of the segment, and delivered to Grand Rapids in March 1991.
Sources & verification
Grand Rapids, MI – Gerald Ford Library and Museum — The Wall Net ↗
The Meijer donations to three Grand Rapids institutions.
Source accessed 2026-09-17
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide, site entry ↗
The original segment in the entrance of the Van Andel Museum since 1994 and received by the Grand Rapids Public Museum three years earlier, the Times report of 13 November 1989 and the Meijer graffito, Fred Meijer's purchase of three segments through the Berlin Wall Commemorative Group and his journey to New Jersey, the gifts to the Ford library and Grand Valley University, and the delivery in March 1991.
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 200
Last verified: Not yet verified
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