The record
Three segments at the US Army's language school, where its Russian and German linguists were trained.
Three segments at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, the US military's language school. The fit is closer than at most of the American military sites in this catalogue: the institute is where the army taught its people Russian, German and Czech, and the Cold War was in large part an intelligence contest conducted by people who had been through this campus.
The institute's own account says Walter Scurei donated them and they were dedicated on 2 November 2005, with Peter Robinson, who wrote Reagan's speech at the Brandenburg Gate, as keynote speaker. They honour the Cold War linguists who served at listening posts, and in 2024 the panels were cleaned and treated for the first time in nearly twenty years.
The three slabs are mounted in the upper courtyard, the central quad of the campus, where the institute holds its ceremonies: a Veterans Day wreath-laying in the Berlin Wall courtyard in November 2018, and on 22 April 2023 a ceremony at the memorial at which a German Air Force officer spoke to American service members. The institute's account of the cleaning, in October 2024, says the panels are on display at the Presidio.
How did it get here?
Donated by Walter Scurei and dedicated on 2 November 2005.
Sources
Listed by the Federal Foundation as #187 and by the Berlin Wall Archive as #338.
List of Berlin Wall segments — Wikipedia ↗
Three segments on display at the U.S. Army Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center.
General referenceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Cleaning and preserving history for the future ↗
Three concrete Berlin Wall panels on the Presidio of Monterey campus, donated by Walter Scurei and dedicated in November 2005 with Peter Robinson, author of Reagan's Brandenburg Gate speech, as keynote speaker; they honour the roughly 49,000 DLIFLC students of the Cold War and were cleaned and treated in 2024.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
DLIFLC holds Veterans Day ceremony — Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center ↗
9 November 2017: the three slabs of the Berlin Wall are mounted in the upper courtyard of the Presidio of Monterey.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Ceremony at the Berlin Wall Memorial, Presidio of Monterey — DVIDS (U.S. Army Garrison Presidio of Monterey) ↗
22 April 2023: German Air Force Lt. Col. Oliver Engels speaks to U.S. service members during a ceremony at the Berlin Wall Memorial, Presidio of Monterey.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
File:DLIFLC Veterans Day Ceremony.jpg — Wikimedia Commons (Presidio of Monterey) ↗
The Army's photograph of a wreath-laying ceremony on 8 November 2018 at the Berlin Wall courtyard, for Veterans Day.
PhotographSource 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 187
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 338
Source-reported segments: 3. 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