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The Wall at Mémorial de Caen

© Benoît Grimbert / Le Mémorial de Caen

The words “Hase bleibt Hase” (“a rabbit remains a rabbit”), and countless black and white rabbits adorn the two segments of Wall at Mémorial de Caen. They stand on raised platforms in the permanent anti-war exhibition, and illustrate the section “The End of the Cold War”. French artist Daniel Boulogne, donated both segments to the museum in 1999. Whilst many of the pieces of Berlin Wall scattered all over the world are painted mainly on the side facing the West, these two are different. The paintings by Berlin artist, Manfred Butzman, are on side of the Wall that faced the east. This side of the Wall was not accessible until after the Fall of the Wall. The wide deathstrip between the border to West Berlin and the interior East Berlin Wall prevented anyone getting close to the Wall on the GDR side.

Immediately after the border was opened on 9^th November 1989, artists from both the East and the West came up with the idea to paint on the eastern side of the Wall as well.

Despite many openings in the Wall, and the fact that traffic was now able to flow between East and West, the deathstrip remained blocked and was still guarded by GDR border guards. In mid-November 1989, Daniel Boulogne was delighted to hear the “DDR-Künstlerbund” (Association of East German Artists) announce its wish to cover the eastern side of the Wall with paint. The French artist loaded a truck with paints and brushes and made his way to Berlin to support the painters in the GDR. After arriving in Berlin it was in the East Berlin “Palast Hotel” where he met Jean Pichard, an employee from the GDR’s French Institute of Culture. He had also recently been appointed the position of manager at the Association of East German Artists. Wolf was excited by the unexpected help and the pair arranged to meet at the border crossing “Checkpoint Charlie” on 17^th November 1989. From here, they planned to bring the paint supplies to Germany in Boulogne’s truck. Despite the Fall of the Wall, the border at Checkpoint Charlie, originally intended for use by diplomats and foreigners, was still heavily guarded.

Getting a truck loaded with two tonnes of undeclared paint supplies through was to prove problematic. At first, the GDR officials denied entry to Boulogne and his driver:

“I went back to the hotel with Jean Pichard. You could still feel the same electric atmosphere in the lobby. We took two CNN cameramen with us. We really wanted to get at the border guards. Leo Wolf told us which crossings we could pass on foot without any trouble, and so we took a detour to the east of Checkpoint Charlie. The tricky part was getting the truck over. The CNN cameramen were really hyped-up. They put the cameras right behind the heads of the border guards and began to film. I tried to go in the direction of the wagon, but was approached immediately by one of the guards. It didn’t look good, but it turned out luck was on our side. Whilst I was talking to the guard, a 38-tonne truck drove up in front of Joël’s truck which was parked on no-man’s land. The guards ran over to the larger truck to check it out. I wasted no time in getting to Joël, he put the truck in gear and his foot on the gas pedal. The cameras were focused on the truck, which was slowly beginning to move. A guard came towards us. He pointed his rifle at me. I pointed towards the cameras that were still filming us. He shouted something at me in German. I tried to answer him in French. The expressions on our faces did the talking for us. I saw the fear in his face when he saw the cameras. He had understood – if the cameras caught him shooting the rifle, they would not be filming a soldier carrying out orders, but a murder, an execution, a crime. He took a step back and lowered his weapon. We had won.”

Leo Wolf and his comrades were already waiting on the other side of Checkpoint Charlie. By this time, it had turned to evening and we would have to put our plans on ice until the next day. Work could finally begin on 19^th November 1989. With official permission, and under the suspicious gaze of the troops at the border, 30 artists began to paint the four hundred metre long stretch of Wall between Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Straße in the East. Each artist was designated a section of the Wall to paint however they wanted. The painting carried on until the afternoon, when one of the border police gave the order for us to stop. Surprised, the artists had to cut short their work after his change of mind. But most of the paintings had already been finished. The border guards then began to cover up the graffiti with paint that night. To this day, it is still not known who gave the order. However, the paint they used to cover up our paintings was of such bad quality that our paintings could still be seen through it. Amongst the artists who took part in this first art session in the East on that day was Manfred Butzmann.

The story behind the rabbits, that today stand at Mémorial de Caen, goes back to a playground, built in 1972 on Parkstraße, Berlin Pankow. After GDR officials repeatedly refused to build a playground, people took things into their own hands and remodelled a car park. At the opening, Manfred Butzmann hoisted a rabbit flag – the symbol of overcoming fear and powerlessness. He used this motif again after the Fall of the Wall. The Wall was now gone and the people (the “fearful, powerless rabbits”) had finally overcome the GDR regime.

A few weeks after the Wall painting campaign, the Wall was slowly taken down. Boulogne sent one of his colleagues to East Berlin. It was his job to save as many pieces of the painted Wall as possible from being crushed. It was pure chance that he discovered the pieces with the rabbits and was able to save them from being destroyed. Boulogne had them brought to Paris and gave them to the museum in Caen.

The quotes are taken from a report by Daniel Boulogne: http://www.memorial-caen.fr/mur_de_berlin/