Stumbling Across the Berlin Wall

BerlinWall
Section of the Berlin Wall with bright graffiti, Montreal. © SB

Six years ago, while wandering through the underground shopping and business concourses of Montreal, I stumbled across the Berlin Wall.

I hadn’t realized a section of the Berlin Wall had been given to Montreal, or that it had been set up in its Centre de Commerce Mondial.

But there it was — one side grey with crude markings, the other bright with 1960s student graffitti, an eerie reminder of the divided city, one ignored (that day, at least) by the stream of underground shoppers and stockbrokers rushing by.

There were several plaques with this fragment of the wall.

On one, this text was written in English, French and German:

BerlinWall1
The other side of the Berlin Wall. © SB

Berlin Wall
1961-1989

This section of the wall is the blade of a knife
that sliced a heart in two.

This fragment of rock is the remains of a dungeon whose walls tore life asunder.

This piece of debris is a triumph
over terror and tyranny.

This piece of concrete bears a message:
The freedom of a people cannot be divided.

 

The wall fell 25 years ago today.

Published by

Shelley Banks

Writer, editor, photographer.