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2018 saw record number of visitors to Berlin Wall

Catherine Treyz
Catherine Treyz - [email protected]
2018 saw record number of visitors to Berlin Wall
The East Side Gallery in October 2018. Photo: DPA

More than 1.1 million people visited the Berlin Wall in 2018, according to the Berlin Wall Foundation, representing a new record.

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“The constantly high attendance proves the uninterrupted interest in the topics of dictatorship and resistance, democracy, bondage and freedom - even in the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall,” Minister of State for Culture and the Media Monika Grütters said in a statement.

Established in 2009, the Berlin Wall Foundation receives approximately €3.6 million per year to maintain the Berlin Wall Memorial, the Marienfelde Memorial, the Günter Litfin Memorial, and, the most recent addition to the foundation, the East Side Gallery.

“The first ten years of the Berlin Wall Foundation are a success story,” Michael Müller, the Mayor of Berlin said in statement. An estimated 8 million people have visited the Foundation’s sites since the 2009.

Located in the center of the city, the Berlin Wall Memorial reveals the physical and political divisions created by the Wall along Bernauer Straße. The Marienfelde Refugee Center Museum is located on the site where East Germans seeking residency in the West completed the emigration process.

Günter Litfin was killed while trying to escape from East Berlin into West, becoming the first fatality of shots fired at the Wall. An old watchtower for German Democratic Republic border troops and memorial commemorates his death and others who died similarly.

The East Side Gallery is the longest open-air gallery in the world. It features both German and international artists who used 1.3 kilometres of the Wall as their canvas.

In November, Germany will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fall of Wall. Events are planned throughout the year to remember the historic moment.

In the Spring, according to various reports, six sections of the Berlin Wall will be auctioned off in Great Britain. Those sections were formerly part of the Parliament of Trees in Berlin and feature text and illustrations by German artist and environmental activist Ben Wagin.

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