An exhibition at the National Army Museum
in London early next year will explore the legacy
of the British Army’s presence in Germany from
1945 to date – and will cover the ARRC’s time in
Bielefeld and Rheindahlen.
Curator Peter Johnston explained to the
imjin: “The ARRC itself will feature as one of
the outcomes, where the British showed they
could work really well in formal coalitions with
multinational forces, and use that as a bedrock
of collective defence. It’s obviously what NATO
is founded upon.”
When the ARRC moved from
Germany to Gloucester almost a
decade ago, the Wall also crossed
the English Channel.
And it is appropriate that this
symbol of the Cold War should sit
outside the NATO headquarters
given the ARRC’s German history –
and not least because Gloucester
today is home to the largest
contingent of German troops
based in the U.K.
WRITING ON THE WALL
We’re keen to identify the precise
area of Berlin where our section of
the Wall may have been located
while the city was still divided.
21st century tourists in the German
capital have to look hard to find
remaining traces of the Wall. Large
parts were torn down in the rush
to reunite the city, making our
detective work all the harder.
The Gloucester section is known to
have come from the ‘British Sector’,
close to the famous Brandenburg
Gate. The faded graffiti on one
side supports that theory.
“In the town centre you had much
more graffiti than in the suburbs,”
explains Bernd von Kostka, curator
at Berlin’s AlliiertenMuseum (Allied
Museum).
To assist us, Bernd reveals a little-
known clue for visitors: “If you’re
stood in front of the Brandenburg
Gate there is today a line of little
bricks in the ground, and that’s
where the Wall was.
“You can easily miss it, and you
need a special Berliner Mauerweg
(Berlin Wall Trail) map to show
where the Wall was, how east and
west was divided.”
On what it was like to experience
life in Berlin with the Wall, he
continues: “It’s difficult. Imagine
that everybody who is, let’s say, 35
today never really experienced the
Wall because he wasn’t born or he
was too young.
It was initially placed at the
Joint Headquarters (JHQ) in
Rheindahlen, North Rhine-
Westphalia, the same military base
that was home to the Allied Rapid
Reaction Corps until 2010.
The book to accompany the exhibition is available for pre-order
from bit.ly/profileBFG
PEOPLE POWER
Our own Berliner has clear
childhood memories of growing up
with the divide.
Stood in front of one well-
preserved section of the Wall in
Niederkirchner Strasse, just a
few hundred metres from where
our piece would have been
located, Colonel Raebel adds:
“Every time when I visit Berlin
and I see a piece of the Wall,
it’s a gripping moment for me.
forever, it’s not possible. And a few
years later the population that
lived on the east side tore down
this wall.
“It’s now just a piece of history, and
that’s a good thing.”
Pacing up and down the
remaining section, he
continues: “When I was a child
growing up I was inside this
Wall in West Berlin. It’s a total
turnaround.
“As a youth of 14 or 15, I often
had discussions with my
teachers about the two German
states and everybody said ‘this
will be forever’. And I thought ‘
no’, you can’t divide a country
It was a ‘wall
of shame’ that
divided the
whole city.
“So, it’s very difficult to explain to
young adults how it was to live in a
divided city.”
@HQARRC
Allied Rapid Reaction Corps
the imjin AUTUMN 2019
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