Yes, our Berlin Wall fragments are genuine. Since our business was founded in 1990, the authenticity of our keepsakes and the historical significance of every piece have been central to our work. Each Berlin Wall piece we sell comes with a certificate of authenticity confirming that it is a genuine fragment of the original East German Berlin border wall. Preserving the material’s authenticity and historical identity is at the heart of what we do.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, West Berlin native Volker Pawlowski began selling Wall fragments in 1992. He developed ways to set them in acrylic or package them in small plastic capsules for postcards. His business, Pawlowski Souvenirs & Postcards, became known for these distinctive keepsakes and soon supplied many of Berlin’s souvenir shops.

The fragments come from a stock of Wall sections that Pawlowski secured in 1991. He rented storage space for sections supplied through a friend who owned a construction company with a contract to dispose of the Wall.

Over time, the business expanded its souvenir range. Following Mr Pawlowski’s retirement, Urban Products Sacha GmbH took over the business in 2024, continuing his work and the sale of Berlin Wall pieces.

Turning fragments of the Berlin Wall into products is a creative, careful process that transforms historical material into tangible keepsakes. These are the main steps:

1. Selection and preparation: The Wall sections are carefully selected for their historical significance and their suitability for breaking into smaller souvenir pieces. Exposure to the weather over time has often given them a distinctive patina.

2. Breaking the material into fragments: Larger sections are broken into smaller pieces, taking into account the size and shape required for the finished product, whether a keyring, an acrylic display or a postcard.

3. Cleaning: The fragments are cleaned to remove dirt and loose particles, ready for further processing.

4. Finishing and preservation: Depending on the product, protective coatings may be applied to preserve the material and bring out its texture and colour. In some cases, colour is added to enhance the appearance or echo original paintwork that has faded over the years.

5. Creating the souvenir: The prepared fragments are incorporated into different products. Volker Pawlowski developed methods for setting pieces in acrylic and placing them in small plastic capsules fitted into postcards.

6. Packaging and certification: The finished products are packaged with a certificate confirming their origin as genuine pieces of the Berlin Wall.

This process preserves the historical significance of the Berlin Wall while turning parts of this powerful symbol into objects that people around the world can keep as part of their own connection to history.

Our clients include renowned institutions and businesses that value Berlin Wall pieces as historical objects and souvenirs. We supply museums dedicated to education and preserving history, as well as the German Ministry of Defence and the German Bundestag.

We have also supplied politicians interested in remembrance and auction houses serving international collectors. Deutsche Bahn and Red Bull are examples of business customers who use our Wall pieces for corporate events or marketing. This breadth of recognition reflects our reputation as a trusted source of authentic Berlin Wall fragments and the wide appeal of our products.

• Forbes
• WELT
• NTV
• Berliner Kurier
• Frankfurter Rundschau
• ND Aktuell
• Mindener Tageblatt
• Aachener Zeitung
• Yahoo
• DW (Deutsche Welle)
• Berliner Morgenpost video

We also supported the “Schmieden für den Frieden” (Forging for Peace) project by supplying reinforcing steel recovered while breaking down Berlin Wall sections. This steel was forged into peace nails, turning material from a symbol of division into a symbol of peace and community. Find out more about the project here.

Learn more about the Forging for Peace project.

Our workshop and our work were also featured in issue 3/2026 of the official La Biennale di Venezia magazine. The article appeared in the print edition.

Yes, our Berlin Wall pieces can be personalised to create distinctive giveaways for corporate events. Find practical examples and answers to common questions on our corporate gifts page.

A personalised piece makes a meaningful gift that reflects the historical significance of the Berlin Wall while connecting it to your business or event. Options include engraving, special packaging and company logos. These individually designed keepsakes can leave a lasting impression on your guests and communicate your company’s message in a distinctive way.

Please get in touch to discuss your requirements.

Yes. Alongside smaller keepsakes, we also offer complete Berlin Wall sections and larger fragments. These are suitable for public exhibitions, private collections or a striking display at your company premises.

Larger pieces are particularly popular with institutions and collectors because they convey the physical presence and historical significance of the Berlin Wall on a greater scale. Each piece tells its own story and stands as a powerful symbol of freedom and overcoming borders.

How did our Berlin Wall workshop begin?

The story of our Berlin Wall workshop begins immediately after the fall of the Wall. Berlin was filled with an extraordinary sense of possibility. People travelled from around the world to experience this historic moment, and many wanted to take a piece of the Wall home as a personal keepsake.

An improvised market soon emerged around the Brandenburg Gate. Loose fragments, broken directly from the border structure, were sold from simple trestle tables. People bargained and traded, the streets were full, and no one yet knew the significance these concrete fragments would one day acquire.

One of the sellers was Volker Pawlowski, whose business we took over many years later. He had previously sold comics and other goods at Berlin flea markets. After seeing another trader selling loose Wall fragments, he recognised the strong interest in these pieces.

He also realised that an unfinished lump of concrete was difficult for many people to store or display attractively. Together with his brother, and at times with help from students, he began preparing the fragments and setting them in acrylic. Loose pieces became displayable keepsakes and collectors’ items. This laid the foundations of today’s Berlin Wall workshop in the early 1990s.

Where do our Wall sections come from?

After the Wall fell, it was dismantled quickly. Some of this work was part of official demolition projects, while much of it was less organised. Construction companies, private individuals and others removed sections using cranes and lorries. Some were destroyed and reused as building material; others later became retaining walls, partitions, privacy screens or even furniture.

Some complete sections were stored and have survived to this day. We source our Wall sections from one such stock that has existed since the 1990s. Although we can no longer trace individual fragments to a particular border crossing or exact location, we know the origin and supply chain of the material we work with.

We also recognise genuine sections by their characteristic construction and composition. These include the concrete’s typical mixture, aggregate and internal structure, along with features such as embedded lifting loops, through-holes and remnants of the upper pipe support. These characteristics clearly distinguish original material from later reproductions.

How are the pieces processed today?

Processing takes place at our workshop in Berlin-Reinickendorf and remains largely manual. The large Wall sections, weighing several tonnes, are first opened up using heavy tools and then broken down piece by piece. Pneumatic hammers, crowbars, saws and hand hammers are used in sequence.

The work is physically demanding and requires considerable experience. Over time, you develop a feel for how the concrete breaks and where to strike to obtain a suitable fragment. The steel reinforcement inside the concrete must also be carefully removed.

After decades outdoors, most of the original colours have weathered or washed away. Smaller pieces in particular are therefore given new colour during production. These colourful surfaces recall the painted western side of the Berlin Wall and make each fragment unique. Colour is deliberately applied unevenly before the material is broken into its final shape.

The fragments are then fitted by hand into acrylic displays, magnets, picture frames and other keepsakes. Although the process is consistent, every product is unique: each fragment differs in shape, colour, aggregate and broken edge.

Why do our Wall pieces come with a certificate?

Early on, buyers began asking for evidence of authenticity. The owner at the time developed a certificate of authenticity, and we continue this approach today. Our certified Wall products come with a numbered document bearing a stamp and an embossed seal.

The certificate is not a government-issued or scientific expert report. It documents our knowledge of the material’s origin and represents our responsibility to our customers. What matters to us is a traceable supply chain, decades of experience with the material and careful processing at our Berlin workshop.

From a symbol of division to a keepsake

We recognise that the Berlin Wall was no ordinary structure. It separated families and friends, restricted the freedom of millions and remains a reminder of a painful chapter in German history.

This gives the work a particular symbolic meaning: a structure that once divided people has been broken into countless small pieces and shared around the world. What was once an impassable border now reminds us that borders can fall and even seemingly permanent systems can be overcome.

For some customers, a fragment is a classic Berlin souvenir. For others, it is a historical collector’s item or a deeply personal memento. We regularly hear from people who lived or worked in Berlin during the Cold War, served here as soldiers or broke a piece from the Wall themselves on the day it fell.

Younger people tend to know the Berlin Wall from lessons, films or historical photographs. A genuine fragment makes that history tangible in a very immediate way.

The Berlin Wall lives on, no longer as a structure of division, but as countless small keepsakes in homes, businesses, museums and collections around the world.