The record
Two Potsdamer Platz segments handed over after a joint concert by Juilliard and the Hanns Eisler school, five days late because of the paperwork.
On 14 November 2004 the Juilliard School and the Berlin Hanns Eisler school of music gave a joint friendship concert in New York under the proposition that politics builds walls and music joins peoples. After the Shostakovich and the Mendelssohn, two segments of the Berlin Wall were handed over to the public in Battery Park, not far from the Statue of Liberty, as a token of the tie between the two cities.
The segments stood originally at Potsdamer Platz and were part of the Vorderlandmauer, the outer face that formed the actual boundary with West Berlin. On who painted them the sources part company: the Federal Foundation attributes the heads on them to Thierry Noir in 1990, while the New York research this record was first written from names Kiddy Citny and places their origin between Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Platz. Both readings are kept here; the two painters worked side by side on the same stretches and are confused constantly.
The handover was meant to fall on 9 November 2004, the fifteenth anniversary. The initiator, Tanja Dorn, a musician and artistic director of a New York piano house, had no difficulty getting the segments released by the Berlin Senate administration, and every difficulty with the transport and import formalities, which is why the ceremony slipped by five days.
The Downtown Alliance, which looks after the district, gives a third reading of the painter: Thierry Noir, in 1997, and says the segment stood in the Federal Environment Ministry building before the gift.
How did it get here?
Released by the Berlin Senate administration and installed at Battery Park in November 2004 on the initiative of the musician Tanja Dorn; from the Vorderlandmauer at Potsdamer Platz.
Sources
Listed by the Federal Foundation as #209 and by the Berlin Wall Archive as #290.
Mapping the 5 Pieces of the Berlin Wall in NYC — Untapped New York ↗
Dimensions, painter, origin stretch, and the 2004 installation.
General referenceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide, site entry ↗
The friendship concert of 14 November 2004 by the Juilliard School and the Hanns Eisler school, the handover of two segments in Battery Park, their origin in the Vorderlandmauer at Potsdamer Platz and their painting by Thierry Noir in 1990, Tanja Dorn's initiative, and the delay past the intended anniversary date caused by transport and import formalities.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17
How a Piece of the Berlin Wall Ended Up in Lower Manhattan ↗
The Downtown Alliance reports the German Consulate gave the segment to New York in 2004 for the fifteenth anniversary; it came from between Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Platz, stood in the Federal Environment Ministry building, and is 12 feet by 8 feet, 2.75 tons, painted by Thierry Noir in 1997.
Institutional sourceSource 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 209
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 290
Source-reported segments: 2. 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