BERLIN – German authorities said Friday they were blocking a plan to rebuild part of the Berlin Wall for a massive film-art project in the German capital.
Citing security concerns and fire risks, Berlin city authorities said they would not grant a building permit to the DAU project by Russian filmmaker Ilya Khrzhanovsky, national news agency DPA reported.
The plan had been to erect 900 concrete wall slabs, each 3.60 metres tall at a city block on Unter den Linden boulevard, for the €6.6 million event.
The walled-in “city within a city” was meant to have its own visa checks, and visitors to the parallel world would have had to apply online for entrance permits.
But the project sparked controversy, with critics labelling it a stunt hurtful to people who lived in communist East Germany.
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