The record
A Daimler-Benz gift for the opening of the federal building named after Reagan — from the border at the Brandenburg Gate, its paint sprayed two days after the crossing opened.
The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center is a very large object in a prominent place, on Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol. Its construction was decided during Reagan's presidency in 1987; Congress voted by a wide margin in 1995 to name it after him, and it opened on 5 May 1998 after eight years of building. It now houses federal agencies and international companies.
Daimler-Benz gave a segment of the Berlin Wall as an opening present. The slab came from the former border at the Brandenburg Gate, and according to the panel beside it the coloured graffiti on it were sprayed on 11 November 1989 — two days after the crossing opened, which dates the paint to the week the object stopped working. The panel sets out the division of Berlin into sectors, the building of the Wall in 1961 to stop people leaving, Reagan's demand at the Brandenburg Gate in June 1987 that Gorbachev tear it down, and the opening two and a half years later. It is signed from the employees of Daimler-Benz and the citizens of Berlin.
Washington holds more records with a Reagan connection than any other city — this building, the CIA monument at Langley, and further afield the Simi Valley library, Eureka College and the San Bernardino park — which makes the capital a good place to notice how completely the object has been absorbed into one national story about who ended the Cold War.
This record was written here before the catalogue's own listing for the site had been read. A record was created for the building, and the Federal Foundation's entry for an unnamed Washington listing turns out to describe the same lobby, 110 metres away. The editorially created duplicate has been retired and the content moved onto the imported record, as with Truro and Bible Hill.
How did it get here?
An opening gift from Daimler-Benz AG when the building was inaugurated on 5 May 1998; from the former border at the Brandenburg Gate, with graffiti sprayed on 11 November 1989.
Sources & verification
List of Berlin Wall segments — Wikipedia ↗
A section of wall displayed in the lobby at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Source accessed 2026-09-17
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide, site entry ↗
The building's history from the 1987 decision to the opening on 5 May 1998 and the 1995 congressional vote on the name, the segment given by Daimler-Benz as an inauguration present, its origin at the border by the Brandenburg Gate, the dating of the graffiti to 11 November 1989, and the text of the information panel.
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 231
Last verified: Not yet verified
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