Wallpecker

This article deals with the widespread use of the term "wallpecker" today. “Wallpecker” is also an older name for the wall creeper , a bird that lives in the mountains.

"Wallpecker"

As wallpeckers in were popularly people called that after the fall of the Wall in 1989 Berlin Wall processed and crushed.

background

The motivation of the wall woodpeckers was fundamentally different. There were numerous

• Souvenir hunters ,
• professional dealers ,
• People who, for political reasons, wanted to take part in the folk festival-like (symbolically fastest possible) dismantling of the Wall, especially in the Potsdamer Platz and Checkpoint Charlie area , as well as
• Artist (see Horst Walter ).

Regular announcements by the West Berlin police "Stop knocking the wall immediately ..." hardly had any effect. Exterior pieces with leftover paintings were particularly popular with souvenir hunters and expensive with dealers (see Fig. “ Wall graffiti ”). During the peak time of the Wallpeckers, however, unknown persons by name also “re-colored” the wall at night or even afterwards. The value of the corresponding parts of the wall, which also bore the color on the fracture surfaces created the day before , was therefore almost zero in terms of historical value. And - whether colored or not - the authenticity of stones offered as “wall pieces” is often doubtful, even if it is allegedly proven by “certificates”, which are usually made by the dealers themselves.

At times there was also a flourishing rental of hammers and chisels . John Runnings had already worked on the top of the wall with a sledgehammer in 1986 and is called "Wallpecker" as well as "Father of the Wallpeckers".

Death

The 14-year-old student Christoph-Manuel Bramböck was on August 31, 1990 together with a friend in Berlin-Marienfelde, near Schichauweg, as a wallpecker. The wall in this area - unlike in the center of Berlin - consisted of concrete slabs fastened horizontally on top of each other. When trying to knock off parts of the wall further up, one of the upper plates came loose and killed the 14-year-old. Since 2009, a memorial stele erected by the Berlin Wall Foundation has been commemorating Christoph-Manuel Bramböck.

Impressions

• 

  Young wall woodpecker

• 

  Border guard behind a hole in the Berlin Wall

• 

  Wallpecker hole in the wall with a view of the death strip and watchtower

• 

  Wall parts, partly with paint residues

• 

  “Wallpecker” and spectators at the Berlin Wall, end of December 1989

• 

  Hole in the wall with a view of East Berlin , end of December 1989

• Wallpecker on the lettering: "SOON GONE TEAR ME DOWN"
• 

  Wall between the Reichstag building and the Brandenburg Gate

• 

  Wallpecker on the lettering

• 

  Close up

• 

  The lettering a few days later

Web links

Commons : Fall and demolition of the Berlin Wall  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• photos
• Podcast “Green Luck”: Interview with contemporary witnesses about sound recordings of the noises made by wall woodpeckers (MP3; 8.6 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Handover of the first stelae for the Wall Dead: The memory of the Wall dead becomes part of the Berlin Wall Trail Press release from the Marienfelde emergency reception center , November 7, 2009.
2. ↑ There was a hole in the family , press release from the Teltow-Fläming district, August 12, 2011, accessed on February 24, 2013