In this collection of archival and photographic material, Gesche Würfel explores the topography along the former Berlin Wall and proposes a new way of thinking about its legacy. 

The Berlin Wall fell in 1989; in 1990, Germany was reunited with the integration of the former German Democratic Republic into the West German political and economic system. The physical division may be forgotten and invisible in many places. However, its lingering effects can still be felt, and the goal to create a united Germany with a collective identity has yet to be achieved. Gesche Würfel’s most recent photographic work investigates these divisions.

For the project documented in this catalog, Würfel traveled the complete course of the former Berlin Wall, stopping every 2.8 kilometers—in a nod to the twenty-eight-year history of the Wall—to document the current state of affairs at the line of separation in Berlin and Brandenburg. Complementing the photographs of areas where the city’s division was reality, the artist, urban planner, and sociologist gathered materials from the Stasi Records Archives, the East German secret police, and spoke to witnesses, including political prisoners, former guest workers, and representatives of German politics and culture about their recollections. With these materials, Würfel paints a multifaceted panorama and portrait of a Germany whose division and reunification continue to shape the country profoundly.