Piece of Berlin wall to be sent to Manila

MANILA, Philippines - Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a section of the famed symbol of a divided Europe was donated to the Philippines to stand in Manila to remember a successful reunification.

The piece of the Berlin Wall is expected to make its way to the Philippines in early 2015. The section stands 3.65 meters tall and 1.2 meters wide.

Chargé d’affaires Mardomel Melicor of the Philippine embassy in Berlin received the section of the wall at the Gärten der Welt (Gardens of the World) on Nov. 27.

Margit Gehrcken of the Berlin Senate Chancellery turned over to Melicor the deed of donation executed by the Berlin city government.

The Berlin Senate conveyed that section of the wall as part of its initiative to remember the importance of its fall.

The Berlin Senate also said “it was happy that part of the Berlin Wall would stand in Manila as a monument to remember that it was possible to successfully overcome and reunify divisions in Berlin and Europe.”

Melicor and Gehrcken observed that the section allocated to the Philippines was number 22 in a series of 40 sections that were formerly located at Potsdamer Platz.

Following the wall’s fall, Sony GmbH donated portions of the wall to the Berlin Senate. Potsdamer Platz is now a bustling commercial and entertainment district in Berlin, with Sony Center at its epicenter.