On November 9 1989 the fall of the Berlin Wall was seen as the first major step towards democratic reforms in Eastern and Central Europe after decades of hostile co-existence between either side of the Iron Curtain.

After joy and excitement made way for reality, the question of what to do with the 140km-long concrete wall loomed. Official demolition started on June 13 1990 and was performed by close to 1000 military personnel working on both sides of the Wall, including 13 bulldozers, 55 excavators, 65 cranes and 175 lorries. It took them several months to complete the job. Just six segments were kept to commemorate the event.

In keeping with ancient traditions, most of the Wall was crushed and reused for construction - mainly roads - while 250 sections were auctioned off for anything from 10 000 to 150 000 Deutsch Marks. The provisional German Democratic Republic government had anticipated commercial interest in the Wall and had awarded East German foreign trade company Limex-Bau a contract to market individual segments. However, those in the business of selling pieces of the Wall had their chance after 250 sections of the Wall were sold off at auctions in 1991. The market was merely responding to demand from all over the world for pieces of the communist-era icon. Whether for ideological, political or personal reasons, or just for fun, pieces of the Wall are still sold online, 20 years after its demolition. The anniversary itself has also boosted the business of selling the Wall.

Selling history  
One such website is the berlinwall.net which claims to be the official website of the Berlin Wall, offering everyone a "piece of true history". These artifacts fetch prices of between $55 and $650 each, depending on size. All, however, come on a walnut plaque with a brass nameplate as well as a numbered authentic certificate and the date and place when it was removed from the Wall. This certificate has no stamp on it but just a signature, leaving everyone free to decide whether their particular piece of concrete is a genuine artifact from the Wall or not. The website’s owners have not limited themselves only to concrete but are also offering real border Wall signs for sale, such as the one marking the end of the British sector (a size 50x50cm in both English and German). 

Another website, berlin-wall.com, also offers chunks of the Wall for sale. This site, unlike the berlinwall.net, promises reliability - at least in its information. It says that the last two authorised segments of the Wall available in the US are being sold or leased by the Berlin Wall Commemorative Group. The group, according to the website, was formed with the idea of bringing pieces of the Wall to the US with the group awarded exclusive rights to distribute full sections of the Wall there in 1990. 

The two segments have been in storage since January 1992, according to the website. One segment was displayed at the 1992 Republican Convention in Houston, Texas, as a monument to world freedom and a symbol of the end of the Cold War. These segments were together in place on the Wall in Berlin and are covered in graffiti, the website also notes. More importantly, the current value of these artifacts has no ceiling because these authorised sections are no longer available. Pieces of the Wall are also sold in Berlin souvenir shops, just as pieces of the pyramids are sold in Cairo. Both places, naturally, assure customers that their piece of concrete did indeed come from the monuments in question and that the spray paint, in the Berlin Wall’s case, is genuine.  

Donating history
Besides being subject to business ventures, Berlin Wall pieces have also become a valuable cultural legacy with hundreds of Wall pieces donated all around the world by both individuals and Berlin city hall. Bulgaria received its piece of the Wall in May 2006. Few people today know that the concrete block sits just outside the capital’s National Palace of Culture (NDK), donated by Berlin’s citizens to the people of Sofia, the inscription reads.

Other pieces of the Wall have made their way to Australia and the US, to museums, schools, libraries and even temples as a reminder of Europe’s former political and ideological divisions. Las Vegas casinos, South Korean parks and Caribbean islands have also become home to segments of the Wall. The city of Berlin has also kept a few dozen segments to give away as ceremonial state gifts.