Читать книгу Where in the World is the Berlin Wall?. 170 Sites around the World онлайн

104 страница из 106

The story behind the rabbits, that today stand at Mémorial de Caen, goes back to a playground, built in 1972 on Parkstraße, Berlin Pankow. After GDR officials repeatedly refused to build a playground, people took things into their own hands and remodelled a car park. At the opening, Manfred Butzmann hoisted a rabbit flag – the symbol of overcoming fear and powerlessness. He used this motif again after the Fall of the Wall. The Wall was now gone and the people (the “fearful, powerless rabbits”) had finally overcome the GDR regime.

A few weeks after the Wall painting campaign, the Wall was slowly taken down. Boulogne sent one of his colleagues to East Berlin. It was his job to save as many pieces of the painted Wall as possible from being crushed. It was pure chance that he discovered the pieces with the rabbits and was able to save them from being destroyed. Boulogne had them brought to Paris and gave them to the museum in Caen.

The quotes are taken from a report by Daniel Boulogne: http://www.memorial-caen.fr/mur_de_berlin/