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© Aimar Anderson / Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom

Next to the impressive glass and concrete facade of the Vabamu Occupation and Freedom Museum (Okupatsioonide Ja Vabaduse Muuseum) in Tallinn, which opened in 2003, the white-painted segment of the Berlin Wall looks very modest. It has been there since November 9, 2014, reminding visitors of the end of the division of Europe. The Vabamu Occupation and Freedom Museum focuses on the German and Soviet occupation of the northernmost Baltic state, which only regained its independence in 1991. The piece of the Wall donated by the Berlin Senate to the Republic of Estonia originates from the centre of Berlin: it once stood at the corner of Leipzigerstraße and Stresemannstraße on Potsdamer Platz. At the opening ceremony, the then Museum Director Kadri Viires and the German Ambassador Christian Matthias Schlaga said: “This piece of the Wall is a sign of friendship between Estonians and Germans and reminds us that this Wall did not fall, as often described, but was taken down by brave people all over Europe. It is also a warning signal that we will never forget that freedom and peace in Europe today cannot be taken for granted.” At the same time as the Wall piece, the exhibition “Dictatorship and Democracy in the Age of Extremes”, published by the Munich Institute of Contemporary History, Deutschlandradio Kultur and the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Eastern Germany was opened in the Vabamu Museum of Occupation and Freedom, and was on display there until February 2015.