The record
A 7,000 lb fragment given by the Berlin Senate in 1997 — which moved in 2023 into the building that used to be the Newseum.
A fragment 11 feet 10 inches high and weighing nearly 7,000 lb, given to the School of Advanced International Studies by the Berlin Senate and dedicated in 1997 by the German foreign minister Klaus Kinkel. It stood for a quarter of a century in the courtyard of the Nitze Building on Massachusetts Avenue, and in 2023 it moved with the school to 555 Pennsylvania Avenue, where it stands in the seven-storey atrium.
That address is the point. 555 Pennsylvania Avenue was the Newseum, which until it closed on 31 December 2019 held the largest stretch of the Wall outside Germany — eight twelve-foot segments and a three-storey guard tower — and which put them into storage in Maryland when it shut. The building lost the largest collection in the country and then acquired a different piece of the same wall, carried in by its new tenant. Of everything in this catalogue, it is the neatest accident.
How did it get here?
A gift from the Berlin Senate acknowledging the part SAIS and the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies played in post-war German-American relations. Its passage to Washington took years of planning and a German naval vessel to carry it.
Sources & verification
A new home for a piece of history — Johns Hopkins University Hub ↗
The 1997 Berlin Senate gift, the dimensions and weight, the dedication by Klaus Kinkel, the naval transport, and the 2023 move to 555 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Source accessed 2026-09-17
Our new home at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW — Johns Hopkins SAIS ↗
The school's own account of the former Newseum building and the wall section visible in the atrium.
Source accessed 2026-09-17
Last verified: Not yet verified
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