West of Berlin
How an iconic symbol
of the Cold War came
to be in Gloucester
It’s easy to miss the unremarkable
piece of concrete positioned
directly opposite the entrance to
the ARRC’s headquarters.
Busy staff officers walk past it
every day on their way into work,
indicating just how it has become
part of the scenery at Imjin
Barracks.
Only closer inspection reveals it as
one of the most iconic symbols of
the Cold War.
That an entire section of the
Berlin Wall should be in Gloucester
reflects the Allied Rapid Reaction
Corps’ unique German heritage.
The Berlin Wall came to represent
the ‘Iron Curtain’ that separated
Western Europe and the Eastern
Bloc after the Second World
War. And ahead of the thirtieth
anniversary of the fall of the Wall in
November 1989, the imjin visited
the German capital to learn how
this particular Cold War relic came
to the U.K.
PAST TENSE
We travelled with our very own
Berliner, German army Lieutenant
Colonel Florian Raebel, a staff
officer serving with the ARRC.
As we walk around his home city,
Raebel explains: “It was a big
surprise to see a piece of the
Berlin Wall in south west England,
and I was proud that a piece of
German history had found its way
to Gloucester.
“But it’s good that most of the
pieces of the Wall have now gone
from here. It was a ‘wall of shame’
that divided the whole city, that
divided families and divided a
population.”
The graffitied section of wall was
gifted to the British military by the
German government in recognition
for U.K. support to West Germany
during the Cold War.
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AUTUMN 2019 the imjin