It was the wall that divided East and West for 70 years at the height of the Cold War – and now a chunk of it is sitting in an Aberdeenshire museum.
With just three pieces left, a tourist visiting from Germany has presented the Grampian Transport Museum with a slab of the Berlin Wall.
Hinnirk Bahrs from Germany, presented the sliver of wall to the museum whilst touring across the UK.
And after being impressed with all that the museum had to offer, he was glad to give it to them for safe keeping.
Museum curator, Mike Ward, said: “A visitor came in with his wife and looked around the museum for quite a long time and on his way out complimented our staff about the museum, but in broken English.
“Our receptionist straight away clocked that he has German, as she speaks fluent German herself.
“And they exchanged words and then all of a sudden he went to his car and came back with a piece of the wall.
“He explained he was touring museums across the UK and that he had three pieces to donate to deserving museums and that he wanted us to have one of them.
“Now we literally do have a piece of history in the museum.”
Whilst something like this wouldn’t usually fit with the collection in the museum, Mr Ward said something that forms part of the world’s history was too good to turn away.
He said: “It’s a strange one for us really as it doesn’t quite fit our collection policy, but when you are offered something with such historic significance, there was no way we were going to say no.
“It is definitely a one-off for us, but everyone knows what the Berlin Wall is and to have a piece of it in Aberdeenshire is quite phenomenal.
“Thinking about all the grief and torment that the Berlin Wall presented to people it really is quite astounding to have a piece of it with us.
“We’re definitely going to stay in touch with the donor to see where the other two pieces end up when he has finished touring the UK.
“But it’s something exciting and really a piece of world history, no matter the size.”
