Slab of the Berlin Wall reserved for PHL still unclaimed

This week Germans and people around the world celebrated the 25th anniversary of the fall of Stützwandelement UL 12.11, or the Berlin Wall. In the German capital itself, an art installation consisting of thousands of lit balloons temporarily "divided" the city until the evening of November 9, when they were set free to fly above Berlin as thousands cheered.

After the Berlin Wall came down, slabs of it were shipped to different countries, as can be seen in Google's video commemorating the quarter-century anniversary of the fall of the wall.



The video includes images of slabs of the Berlin Wall relocated to different countries. The Philippines is not among them.

The omission is curious, since in 2011 then-German President Christian Wulff said in a statement on the 25th anniversary of the EDSA Revolution that People Power was an inspiration to the peoples of East and West Germany at the time.

"Only a few months later, the Berlin Wall came down and we Germans were able to make our unified state a reality in peace and freedom," he said.

However, it turns out that a slab of the Berlin Wall had indeed been reserved for the Philippines. It just hasn't been claimed yet.

In a piece for Manila Bulletin in September, former Philippine Ambassador to Germany Jose Abeto Zaide said that during President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's administration, the Philippine Embassy in Germany worked with the Berlin Protocol to get a piece of the wall for the Philippines.

The talks, he said, resulted in Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit's agreeing to donate a one-meter-wide piece of the Berlin Wall to the country.

Zaide added that the task only needed Arroyo's availability to sign the Golden Book at the Berlin Rathaus (City Hall), a consent of the EDSA committee to receive the Berlin Wall, and a logistical support for shipment of the 2.8-ton gift package to Manila.

The plan never pushed through because Arroyo's visit to Germany never materialized. Zaide also said that the slab was marked reserved for the Philippines. However, more than 10 years after the agreement was made, the slab remains in Germany, unclaimed

Slabs of the Berlin Wall are given away during state visits; hence, segments of the fallen Wall are scattered all over the world as a reminder that democracy can win.  

GMA News Online is still trying to reach Department of Foreign Affairs for comment as of posting time. — Trisha Macas/BM, GMA News