25T36 Berlin’s Parliament of Trees

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E35, B30.

In Berlin’s government district is a patch of ground – a garden, really, with tall trees and a place that’s easy to overlook. The official name is “Parliament of Trees Against War and Violence”, begun by artist Ben Wagin in 1990.

Wagin (1930-2021) began planting trees on land where the former Berlin Wall used to run near the historic Reichstag government building, as authorities began dismantling the physical wall. What remains of Wagin’s experiment is a piece of ground that acts as both memorial to what the Wall represented and fractured, and an aspiration for both modern Germany and Europe.

Of the many trees in this space, 16 of them represent the 16 modern federal states of Germany. There are also slabs of granite on which are engraved the names of the victims of the Wall. The “back” wall is painted with murals and messages, and in between are little paths and flower beds. I think Wagin also wants to remind us that in many parts in Berlin and throughout Germany, the former Wall dividing the city and the two former nations, respectively, have been reclaimed by nature.

In 2017, the memorial park was added to the City-State of Berlin’s list of protected monuments. Administered by the Stiftung Berliner Mauer (Berlin Wall Foundation), the Parliament of Trees is free of charge, open Sundays from 12pm to 5pm in the months between April and October inclusive.

1945 End of World War II. 1961 The Berlin Wall goes up. 1989 The Berlin Wall comes down.
“Teilerfolg” (partial success).
“Wer zu spät kommt, den bestraft das Leben.” (Life punishes those who come too late. -Mikhail Gorbachev, 1989.)
“Das Fundament eines gemeinsamen europäischen Hauses muss eine intake Umwelt sein.” (The foundation of a common European home must be an intact environment.)
Original segment of the Berlin Wall: “Unbekannte Opfer” (unnamed victims).
Original segment of the Berlin Wall: “Mauer Bruch” (wall break).

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 8 June 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

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