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“Wall Against Walls” Finds a Home at LA Plaza

After traveling cross-country, the 12-foot-tall section of the Berlin Wall – called the Wall Against Walls – was erected on Friday, February 7 at 10:30am at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes’ newly-renovated Historic Paseo Walkway, where it will be on display for an indefinite period of time. Visitors to the Walkway can read the message, meant as a “thank you” from Berliners to the United States and its people.

On November 9, 2019, the 30th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Berlin residents attempted to gift U.S. President Donald Trump with the “Wall Against Walls,” a 2.7-ton section of the wall itself. A letter inscribed on the side of the wall of that begins: “Dear President Trump, this is an original piece of the Berlin Wall. For 28 years it separated East and west, families and friends. It divided not only Berlin and Germany but the whole world.” It was refused.

The inscription reads:

Dear President Trump,

This is an original piece of the Berlin Wall. For 28 years, it separated east and west, families, and friends.

It divided not only Berlin and Germany, but the whole world. Too many people died trying to cross it—their only crime being their desire to be free. Today the world celebrates the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Germany is united again, and only a few scattered pieces remind us that no wall lasts forever.

For decades, the United States played a major role in bringing this wall down. From John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan, the Presidents of the USA fought against it.

We would like to give you one of the last pieces of the failed Berlin Wall to commemorate the United States’ dedication to building a world without walls.

Citizens of Berlin

Marcos Cline-Marquez, founder and executive producer at Altered LA, worked with Berlin-based pro-democracy nonprofit Die Offene Gesellschaft, the project’s orchestrators, to transport the Wall Against Walls from Berlin to the United States.