The slabs are mostly gray, austere, and served for three decades as a lethal barrier to prevent residents of communist East Berlin from escaping to the West during the post World War II era.
Jack Jawitz, a Bradenton dermatologist, came to own about 800-900 feet of the pieces, which had been collected by anti-Communist activist Rainer Hildebrandt and shipped to the United States decades ago for safekeeping.
“A lot of people don't realize the Berlin Wall is actually two walls,” said Jawitz, who visited the area shortly after the wall came down in 1989.
The western side was covered in graffiti, but the eastern side, “you couldn't go near it. There were shoot-to-kill orders and guards,” he said. At least 140 people are believed to have died there, attempting to flee the oppression of the Soviet-aligned German Democratic Republic, known as East Germany.
“So Rainer put together the largest collection of East Berlin Wall, had it sent to America for safe storage and safe keeping, because nobody would be chipping it away and destroying it. He wanted to tell the story at a later date, and he wanted a witness and evidence. So it went to America,” said Jawitz.
READ MORE: New College students build a small replica of the Berlin Wall on 30th anniversary of its fall (2019)
The approximately 250 pieces in Jawitz's collection include solid sections of the wall, each about 3 feet tall and 10 feet wide, and about 4 inches thick, said Javitz. They stack on top of each other in threes, so each section is about 9 feet high. If put all together, they would stretch for about two-tenths of a mile.
Jawitz became involved about 20 years ago when the Outdoor Arts Foundation, headed by Jay Goulde, acquired the collection from Elizabeth Glass. Goulde was a close friend, and Jawitz supported Goulde's goal of displaying sections of the wall across the country.
“We've researched this project for a year and a half, and as far as we know, this is the largest private collection in the world," Goulde told the Tampa Bay Times in 2007.
When Goulde died in 2019, the collection went to Jawitz. He plans to donate most of it to New College.
Parts of it have been painted on by global artists in the years since the Colf War ended, and are on display at The Freedom Pavilion in Sylva, North Carolina, in a building Jawitz owns.
Jawitz said many people come in to view the exhibit, without any concept of what the Berlin Wall represented.
“Most people don't know the history of the wall. They do not teach it anymore,” said Jawitz.
“I want the world to know what the Berlin Wall was. It represented, for 30 years, the divisiveness of the cultures in the world. It represented millions of American servicemen serving all over the world, 24/7 protecting America from the eastern ideology.”
“I'm out of my comfort zone. I'm a physician. I don't know the first thing about what to do with the wall, so my first inclination is to find a partner, and I found New College, and they embraced the idea.”Jack Jawitz, Bradenton dermatologist
“We intend to work with New College and have them participate in doing something with the pieces up there. But for the current time, for the foreseeable future, that is an open running facility on Main Street in Sylva, North Carolina,” said Jawitz.
A place in history
Experts on German history contacted by WUSF confirmed that the collection could very well be the largest of its kind outside Germany.
“Based on the numbers you shared, this is certainly a massive collection,” said Andrew Hartwell, head of communications at the Wende Museum in Culver City, California, which has 11 Berlin wall sections on display. He said 10 of those “form what we describe as the largest continuous section of the Wall outside Germany.”
“There's always the possibility of some private collector who is off the radar," he added. But if there are more than 250 full sections, "it would be fair to describe it as one of the largest known collections of Berlin Wall material outside Germany, and very possibly the largest.”
Asked for comment, Patrick Major, professor of modern history at the University of Reading and author of “Behind the Berlin Wall,” said he “would be amazed if this weren't the biggest collection.”
A small section of the wall is on display outside the Morean Center for Clay in St. Petersburg.
“One doesn't really own the wall. One becomes a caretaker. For the few years that I was the caretaker, I really felt that was a privilege and I had to respect it and do the right thing with it,” said Jawitz.
“I'm out of my comfort zone. I'm a physician. I don't know the first thing about what to do with the wall, so my first inclination is to find a partner, and I found New College, and they embraced the idea,” he said.
“It had nothing to do with politics,” said Jawitz, of the conservative direction New College has taken, eliminating gender studies and adding sports programs after Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed a slate of new trustees three years ago to lead the college in a more conservative direction.
READ MORE: Students take sledgehammers to replica of Berlin Wall on anniversary of fall
In fact, Jawitz said he found a mention of a New College marine biology professor in the newspaper. She’d recently been awarded a grant. So, he wrote to her with an idea.
“And I said, I have 100 tons of wall of clean cement you can put it in the bay. Call it the New College Reef. It'll be good for fishermen, it'll be good for scuba divers. It'll be good for historians,” Jawitz said.
That professor alerted college leadership about the proposal.
"And when administration got hold of the offer, I said to them, ‘Well, are you still going to make a reef out of it?’ And they said, ‘Heck, no, we are going to have it to hold and touch and be part of a new curriculum,’” recalled Jawitz.
The collection was previously appraised at $2.5 million, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The concrete was tested by a company called CTL Group and found to match slabs in East Germany from that period, Jawitz said.
New College hosted an event Tuesday to accept the donation.
“New College is honored to steward this history and to ensure it serves as a permanent educational reminder of the triumph of freedom over oppression,” said a statement by NCF president Richard Corcoran.
“May the wall remind us what happens when speech is silenced, dissent is punished, and ideology is enforced by force.”
As to how the wall will be displayed, “we haven't decided fully on what we're doing,” said New College spokesman Jamie Miller.
“We had talked about potentially having one face Germany, one face DC, one face the beaches of Normandy, one face Mount Rushmore, or the World Trade Centers, things like that, that would be of interest to people to kind of and then place them around campus,” he said.
“But I don't know that there's been a final determination on that.”
Jawitz said he is aware that New College previously commemorated the fall of the Berlin Wall in 2019, and has faith in whatever they decide to do.
Said Jawitz: “My gift to New College is without any conditions, and they can do whatever they want.”
