Trump rejects 2.7-ton fragment of Berlin Wall to protest immigration policy: ‘No wall lasts forever’
“No wall lasts forever.”
That’s the message a Berlin-based pro-democracy group called Die Offene Gesellschaft (which translates to “The Open Society” in English) is sending to President Donald Trump in protest of his vow to build a “big, beautiful” border wall. The group has delivered that message on a 2.7-ton piece of the Berlin Wall — a concrete blockade that the U.S. helped bring down years ago.
“We would like to give you one of the last pieces of the failed Berlin Wall to commemorate the United States’ dedication to building a world without walls,” reads a letter inscribed on the concrete slab that once divided East and West Berlin and German citizens for nearly three decades.
“Germany is united again and in Berlin only a few scattered pieces remind us that no wall lasts forever,” adds the letter signed by the “Citizens of Berlin.”
According to the “Walls Against Walls” initiative website, 2,431 people online (and counting) have added their names to the letter. Die Offene Gesellschaft, whose mission is to “tear down walls” for an open society, has intentionally pulled off this ambitious stunt on the anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s collapse.
“On the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we want to remind the President that the United States has always fought for and defended an open society,” Philip Husemann, the managing director of Die Offene Gesellschaft, tells Insider. “It is better to tear down walls than to build new ones, whether it’s the walls in people’s minds or real walls that divide countries and people.”
According to Husemann, the German group of over 5,000 individuals obtained the Cold War relic from a dealer in Berlin who owns several pieces of the Berlin Wall. Entirely funded by private donations, the group then flew it to New York and drove it down to Washington D.C in a trailer.
Despite informing the American embassy in Germany as well as the White House about the letter, when Die Offene Gesellschaft organizers attempted to deliver the 12-by-7-foot artifact, members of the secret service informed them that Trump had “rejected” their gift. Trump has not made any official comment about the gift from Die Offene Gesellschaft.
Although the group is now working to find a place to house the concrete slab, Husemann says they hope the letter will end up in a public place where all American citizens can read it.
“Gifts to a sitting president always belong to the United States and not to the individual in office. It belongs to the people,” Husemann tells Insider.
While the Nov. 9, 1991 collapse of the Berlin Wall reunited a physically and ideologically divided Germany, it catalyzed a seismic shift that also marked the end of the Cold War in the minds of American people, according to Pew Research Center. Husemann says that they hope the artifact will be a reminder of the United States’ role in the historic collapse of the Berlin Wall and encourage Trump to enact “policies that will ensure that in the future, there will not be more but fewer walls in the world.”
“It divided not only Berlin and Germany but the whole world,” reads the letter on the historic fragment. It adds that many people died trying to cross the blockade, their “only crime being their desire to be free” — a sentiment echoed by many pro-immigration advocates about migrants crossing the US-Mexico border who seek asylum in America from the violence, poverty and more in their home countries.
While Trump has enacted several controversial hardline immigration policies, particularly the travel bans on Muslim-majority countries and the “zero-tolerance” policy, he has yet to deliver on his signature campaign promise to “Build the Wall.” According to Newsweek, the Trump administration had constructed less than 15 percent of its border wall in August — however, the president insists that “great progress” has been made on the border wall despite the fact that hundreds of miles still need to be built.
