The record
The courtyard where the SAIS segment stood from 1997 to 2023, chosen in a Berlin storage yard for a graffito its buyer misread as the German for free.
Jack Janes, who directed German studies at the School of Advanced International Studies, went to Berlin in the summer of 1994 to buy his school a piece of the Wall. The Berlin Senate was willing to help, but there were no small fragments left — only complete segments — and the conference room he had in mind could not take two and a half tonnes. He went to look at what the Senate held in reserve anyway, and picked a segment because he could see a graffito on it beginning FR. He was confident it would read *frei*, the German for free, which would have been about as symbolic as an object can be. Back in Washington, examined properly, *frei* turned out to be *Fred*.
Getting it there was harder than choosing it. Transport and installation had to be paid for; the dean, Paul Wolfowitz, later president of the World Bank, backed the project, as did Ted Baker of the university administration, and it was still too expensive. The university asked the Bundeswehr to carry it. Nothing was heard for a long time, until years later Janes took a call from the German military attaché telling him the segment had arrived at an air force base in Virginia. It was dedicated on 5 November 1997, four days before the eighth anniversary of the opening of the border.
It stood in the courtyard on Massachusetts Avenue for a quarter of a century. In 2023 it moved with the school to 555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW — the building that used to be the Newseum — where it stands in the atrium; this catalogue holds a separate record for it there.
This record documents the place it left, which is why it is classified as a former location rather than duplicating the object. The two records were written from opposite ends: the current one from the university's own account of the move, this one from the Federal Foundation's entry, which was written while the segment was still here and preserves how it was bought.
How did it get here?
Chosen by Jack Janes from the Berlin Senate's reserve stock in the summer of 1994, flown to Virginia by the Bundeswehr, and dedicated on 5 November 1997.
Sources
Listed by the Federal Foundation as #232.
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide, site entry ↗
Jack Janes's 1994 trip to Berlin and the Senate's support, the absence of small fragments and the weight problem, his choice of a segment for the FR graffito that proved to read Fred, the support of Paul Wolfowitz and Ted Baker, the request to the Bundeswehr and its eventual delivery to an air force base in Virginia, and the dedication on 5 November 1997.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17
A new home for a piece of history — Johns Hopkins University Hub ↗
The segment's quarter-century in the courtyard on Massachusetts Avenue and its move to 555 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2023.
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 232
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