East German Planning to Preserve Wall--as Monument to Capitalism

EAST BERLIN — While politicians call for the total destruction of the Berlin Wall, an East German entrepreneur has quietly secured rights to a section he hopes to preserve as a monument--and a lucrative billboard.

Andreas Dademasch, who runs an advertising business, told the East Berlin daily Neues Deutschland on Thursday that he had bought the rights to 3,300 feet of the 13-foot-high concrete barrier from the district council.

“We’ll clean and look after it because we think something of it should remain as a kind of cultural monument. And, we want to market it for advertising,” he told the paper.

A state-operated East German export company is currently selling off concrete slabs from the Wall to collectors.

Christian Democratic leader Lothar de Maiziere, whose conservative Alliance won last Sunday’s election, said this week the 28-year-old Wall should be torn down entirely.

Dademasch hopes that will not happen. His billboards would advertise everything except alcohol, cigarettes and sex, he said. “We won’t play along with that.”