Memorial Park: Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall Memorial is located at the western end of Memorial Park in downtown Rapid City, featuring two original sections of the Berlin Wall — the concrete barrier that divided East and West Berlin from 1961 to 1989 — along with two iron tank traps that served as extra safeguards along the wall. The side facing East Germany is plain concrete; the side that faced West Germany still bears its original graffiti. Both segments came from the two-mile stretch between the Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie — the most historically significant and heavily watched section of the entire wall. The memorial is one of only around 40 in the country to feature original wall sections. The memorial came to Rapid City in 1996 after the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology hosted a traveling Berlin Wall exhibit that drew a large audience, inspiring local citizens and community leaders to raise funds to purchase and install two sections in Memorial Park. Interpretive signs and photographs along the walking path tell the full story of the wall's construction, the Cold War, and its fall