Fake.

Fake Berlin Wall fragments on sale as souvenirs?

It’s been nearly 40 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall but you can still buy pieces of it in the German capital as souvenirs. Are they the real deal?

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, it sealed the fate of East Germany. People wasted no time and started hacking away at the monstrosity with hammers and chisels. Those people chipping away at the former border barricade were known as “Mauerspechte,” or wall woodpeckers. By June 1990, most of the Berlin Wall had been taken care of by bulldozers. Only a few sections of it have survived to this day; at the official Berlin Wall Memorial or the East Side Gallery, for example.

Still, fragments of the Wall keep turning up in large amounts all over the city. The Checkpoint Charlie Museum, souvenir stores and even hotels have thousands of pieces for sale. Almost 40 years since the fall of the wall, supply of the concrete chunks — brightly painted, made into fridge magnets or stuck onto postcards — shows no signs of slowing down. But, how can that be? Could these pieces of rubble perhaps come from much less significant and historical origins?