Berlin Wall Collection
This collection will be the largest publicly viewable collection of Berlin Wall segments outside Berlin. While these segments are not currently on public display, exhibit plans are underway.
Rebuilding the Berlin Wall in Arkansas
Nearly four decades after its destruction heralded an end to the Cold War, the Berlin Wall is now being pieced together again in Blytheville, Arkansas as part of a new exhibit. The Berlin Wall Collection at the National Cold War Center holds the largest publicly viewable collection of Berlin Wall segments outside of Berlin. When completed, the exhibit will join the museum's permanent collection, taking visitors on an immersive journey through Cold War history.
Behind the Berlin Wall Collection
From Berlin to Blytheville
Putting the Pieces Together
Control by Design
From its inception, the Berlin Wall was built by East Germany to halt the rampant migration from east to west. The wall's design tells the story. Nearly 12-feet high and spanning 96 miles, the concrete wall was just part of a system to control population movement west. The most severe methods of deterrence were deployed on the East Berlin side of the wall, which included a system of fences and barbed wire overlooked by more than 300 watchtowers manned by armed guards. Known in the west as the "death strip," this desolate section nearest the East German side of the wall prevented escape attempts with lethal force.
The Story of the Berlin Wall
Depending which side you were on, the Berlin Wall told very different stories.
From West Berlin, the wall pressed in on all sides. It divided neighborhoods and split families. The wall was a physical manifestation of the Iron Curtain, and a constant reminder of the threat of Soviet power that enveloped West Berlin for the entirety of the Cold War.
The view was no better from the other side. From East Berlin, the wall seemed like an armed fortress blocking what had previously been the most reliable escape route to freedom, family and opportunity in the more affluent west.
For the rest of the world, the construction of the Berlin Wall marked a sharp escalation in tensions, and captured the Cold War's core conflict in one pace—two fundamentally opposed ways of living, unable to coexist.