During the Cold War, the Berlin Wall was a symbol of oppression, tension and fear. Twenty-five years ago it was torn down and led to German reunification
Members of the UT German Club built their own version of the Berlin Wall on Centennial Mall.
“We wanted to express to the student population this kind of oppression happened in the past,” said German Club President Hannah Kissel. “It was unforeseeable; people didn’t know that the wall was going to come down any time soon. But it’s also a way to show the oppression that is still going on in the world today.”
The wall was put on Centennial Mall in front of the Student Union steps Sunday, Sept. 28, and will remain there until Friday, Oct. 3.
On Friday evening, there will be a tear-down ceremony, Kissel said. The club chose Oct. 3 for the ceremony because it’s the anniversary of the reunion of East and West Germany after the Cold War.
After the ceremony, the club will show “Friendship,” a 2010 film starring Matthias Schweighofer and Friedrich Mücke about a young man searching for his father who fled the German Democratic Republic.
Students built the nearly 40-foot wall with wood and drywall; there also will be chalkboard paint on the outside so that people can write on the wall. Quotes that are on the remnants of the actual wall in Berlin will be written each day to forge a connection between students and the significance the wall had in history, Kissel said.
For more information, contact Kissel at hannah.kissel@utoledo.edu.
