Fotoeins Fotografie

Above: “Parlament der Bäume gegen Krieg und Gewalt.”

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 “Parlament der Bäume gegen Krieg und Gewalt” (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.

Parliament of Trees.

“Teilerfolg” (partial success).

“Das Fundament eines gemeinsamen europäischen Hauses muss eine intake Umwelt sein.” (The foundation of a common European home must be an intact environment.)

🇩🇪 “Wer zu spät kommt, den bestraft das Leben.” 🇷🇺 “Кто опаздывает, того наказывает жизнь.” 🇬🇧 “Life punishes those who come too late.” Quote attributed to former Soviet Union press secretary Gennadi Gerassimov, as written in a speech by the final leader of the U.S.S.R. Mikhail Gorbachev, during the latter’s state visit to East Germany in October 1989, one month before the Fall of the Wall.

Original segment of the Berlin Wall, exemplar number 65. The rectangular stone tablets on the ground list the names of people who in their escape attempt fell victim to the Berlin Wall.

Victims of the Berlin Wall: Rudolf Urban, died 19 August 1961, 1st identified victim in attempted escape; Ida Siekmann, died 22 August 1961, 1st woman victim of Berlin Wall; Günter Litfin, died 24 August 1961, 1st victim shot to death trying to escape.

Original segment of the Berlin Wall: “Mauer Bruch” (wall break).

Original segment of the Berlin Wall: “Unbekannte Opfer” (unidentified victims).

Artist Ben Wagin’s legacy project for the city of Berlin.

Directions

In 2017, the City-State of Berlin added the memorial park to the list of protected monuments. Today, the Stiftung Berliner Mauer (Berlin Wall Foundation) manages The Parliament of Trees. The site is free of charge, open Sundays from 12pm to 5pm from April to October. With BVG public transport, take the U-Bahn U5 line to station “Bundestag.”

( View this location on OpenStreetMap )

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 8 June 2025. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-kbO, and began as entry “25T36 Berlin’s Parliament of Trees” on 12 June 2025.