Friday 30 March 2007

The Wall that Was

The European Headquarters and Parc Léopold, 1040 Brussels. You must have recognised Paul-Henry Spaak Building, also known as le Caprice des Dieux ("Gods' whim") because of its shape. Incidentally, this famous cheese is already 50 years old...

You may have passed by the European Parliament in rue Wiertz without ever noticing a tall and colourful rectangle hidden by the shrubs. Well, pay attention, you are looking at a piece of the Berlin Wall!

On a tri-lingual inscription (French, Dutch and German, Belgium's official languages), one can read the following: Berlin Wall – Genuine piece from Potsdamer Platz.

The Wall was Berlin's, Germany's and Europe's symbol of division from 1961 to 1989. Its fall on 9.11.1989 allowed the unification of eastern and western Europe within the EU on 1st May 2004.
Now I can’t help wondering... Is this a new EU symbol? Are we perhaps running into a brick wall?
This post and photo provided by MKWM.

3 comments:

MKWM said...

Q, many thanks again for inviting me on Mannekin Pics. Sharing a blog is quite a responsibility but so much fun in perspective. Speaking of which, off I go with my camera. Bye for now...

zoe said...

that's part of the berlin wall ? i have a bit of the part that was knocked down in my living room - it's great to hide behind when avoiding neighbours.

quarsan said...

Thanks MK, but this blog is intended to be a shared effort. If I just put my own pics up that would be nice, but the more people who put up pics, with their comments or information about Brussels, the better the blog will be for visitors.