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By Garrett Wymer and Laura Clark

A wall made of cardboard boxes was torn down Monday to celebrate the destruction of a much larger concrete barrier that once separated a country.

More than 60 students and faculty in the Division of German Studies celebrated with the recreation of the wall on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The event also featured a documentary and a panel discussion, which included professors and a German native who were in Berlin at the time of the fall.

Students used markers and chalk to tag the wall, then knocked the cardboard down on the Student Center patio. German Studies director Harald Hoebusch said the panels were built to bring a momentous event to campus for all UK students.

“Students can do the same things the Germans did — initial it, tag it, or leave their thoughts,” Hoebusch said.

The three wooden panels were saved and will be displayed in the Max Kade German house and on the 10th floor of Patterson Office Tower, Hoebusch said.

The wall was covered in German slogans, including phrases used on the original Berlin Wall such as, “With perseverance, the wall will fall” and “Unity for Germany.”

Brigitte Stolz, a psychology major and German minor sophomore, tagged the wall with her last name, which means “proud” in German. She also added her her grandparents’ initials to honor her background.

“My family heritage is German,” Stolz said.  “It’s important for people to know the heritage and the history of Germany, and for people to see that unity.”

The panel discussion at the Max Kade German House on East Maxwell included three speakers who gave their accounts of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

UK professor Michael Jones in the division of German Studies, was a professor at Ohio State University and took students on a study abroad program in Berlin during the fall of the wall.  Jones said he was “scared to death” when the students were eager to get involved in the demonstrations.

Thomas Sauer, a district world language specialist with the Jefferson County School system, was 13 years old and lived in Berlin when the wall was destroyed. Sauer said he did not want the wall to come down.

“I thought, ‘There’s another world out there. It exists, it’s over there, but you can’t go there. End of story,’ ” Sauer said.

Living without color television and Mars Bars was something Sauer said he was used to.  When the Berlin wall came down, he said it was no longer a place he knew.

“Somebody took my country away and I never  got it back,” Sauer said.

German Club president and international studies and German junior, John Conaway, said the German club was recently officially registered, and the day’s activities were part of their first big event.

“I want people to realize what happened 20 years ago,” Conaway said.  “I don’t want people to forget … we want to celebrate it.”