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Furthermore, the Wall continued to sell well and development on the area that was once the border went on full steam ahead. The memorial on Bernauer Straße was officially opened in 1998 and received criticism due to its abstract design which gave no real idea of what the Wall had actually been or what it meant.

Fig. 1

© Archiv Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung

At the same time, representatives for the victims continued to complain about the general indifference towards 13^th August. This was a complaint which had already been formulated as early as the 35^th anniversary by victim’s representative Klaus-Peter Eich.

The facility, opened in 1998 on Bernauer Straße, was also unable to change anything fundamentally. For one thing the memorial site was, as before, run by volunteer workers and the church. The financial and personnel situation had become extremely precarious over a number of years. The fact that the site at “Bernauer Straße” could develop into a Berlin Wall memorial, was above all down to the enthusiasm of the volunteers. For politicians, the memory of the Wall and the memorial inaugurated in 1998 seemed to be forgotten outside of the commemoration days on August 13^th and November 9^th.