Georg is a member of a railway model building club. The club has created a model of the Inner-German border, specifically a section where it intersects with a double-track railway line. For Georg and his fellow club members, it was important to make vanished history visible and tangible again. He brought the model to the International Museum Day in 2022 at the Marienfelde Refugee Reception Center Memorial, where he explained it to interested visitors.
In 2001, we thought about presenting the whole thing as a model, based on the consideration that the border is gone. All those who are born now no longer recognize it and no longer know anything about it. On the other hand, however, it is important that the memory about this border remain so that something like that never happens again. An impression should be created of what it means to cross a national border without any passport control – just because there is a shop next door where you can buy something cheap, as we know it today in the European Union. As you know, this was very different at the German-German border. So we thought about how we could present it in a way that could be integrated into a railway model layout. After some back and forth, we came up with this object.
Georg, excerpt from the oral history interview on May 12, 2022, Interviewer: Sarah Bornhorst
Further Media
The models shown here are detailed replicas, offering a vivid way to engage with the structure of the Wall and its function as a border. In some cases, this may seem macabre, but on the other hand, it underscores the significance of the Berlin Wall for the people not only in Berlin and Germany but around the world.
The Faller model kit contains 40 individual pieces. Manufacturer's description: "25 years since the fall of the Wall! Patinated model with 32 segments of the Berlin Wall, the monument to German division and peaceful reunification. 16 of the elements depict artistic motifs from the open-air art gallery 'East Side Gallery' in large-format digital prints. Wallpecker holes are included in the kit."