Berlin Wall’s fate unites Germans

It symbolised the great divide between East and West Germany in its heydays. But years after the Berlin Wall was pulled down in 1989, the unified nation is contemplating what to do with the remnants of masonry.

Germans are collectively concerned about the Wall's future

Its ironical that what once was a wedge would now help to rally people together.

But the future of whatever that is left of the historical wall is of great importance and Germans are seeking to use their collective wisdom.

Chip it into chunks and sell it off to tourists?  Or declare it a World Heritage site?

“The wall must be protected, but there is no justification to consider it a World Heritage site like the Great Wall of China.” 

A city government spokeswoman

Germans debated the options with renewed vigor on Wednesday on the forty-second anniversary of the day the formidable Wall first went up in 1961.

Little is left of the 106 km-long wall that surrounded West Berlin.  It exists only in small stretches.

Souvenir hunters have carted away chunks of it. Other portions have been fenced off.

But Germans feel that what Communist East Germany called the ‘anti-fascist protection barrier’ deserves more recognition.

More than 5,000 people fled over the Berlin Wall from when it was built in 1961 until it fell in 1989. More than 200 died trying to escape to West Berlin.

“The fall of the wall stands for the victory of the human over the inhuman. This should be protected for future generations by declaring the wall a World Heritage site,” Frank Henkel, a conservative member of Berlin’s state assembly insisted.

But some other Germans oppose the nomination.

“The wall must be protected, but there is no justification to consider it a World Heritage site like the Great Wall of China,” said a city government spokeswoman.

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies