A previously hidden section of the Berlin Wall has been discovered in the heart of the German capital.

The 20-metre piece lay undisturbed for almost 30 years, obscured by vines and graffiti in a quiet side street in the Mitte district.



This June the unremarkable block of concrete was spotted by a keen-eyed group of locals who suspected it for what it really was: a piece of the Berlin Wall, the barrier that divided the city for 28 years.



“It’s odd to think you can still find a bit of undiscovered Wall in the middle of Berlin,” said the city councillor for urban development Ephraim Gothe, who found the section while leading a monthly neighbourhood walk.

Gothe said he had been showing 40 residents around a new complex housing the Federal Intelligence Service in the Mitte district. They skirted the building, then explored a half-built park behind it.

Gothe then led the group down a passageway to show them the route of a planned walkway and cycle path. “We bashed our way through the thicket and found ourselves standing in front of this bit of wall,” he said. “We all asked ourselves what it could be.”



One person suggested it could be a piece of the border’s outer defence barrier, built to stop East Germans approaching the “death strip”. It was thinner and smaller than the better-known western wall, which was topped with a concrete tube.



“We could tell it was authentic by the materials and the way it was constructed,” said Dr Günther Schulsche, from the Berlin Wall Institute, who visited the site after Gothe flagged it for inspection.



The concrete was exactly the same height and made of the same stone as similar reinforcements built at a nearby border crossing around 1985, he said.

The clincher, Schulsche said, was the metal mounts for lighting, a feature characteristic of the tightly guarded border.



The stretch of wall, which would have probably been torn down, has now been placed under protection. The park has been redesigned around it and panels are planned to explain its significance to passersby.



Gothe’s discovery was announced this week to coincide with the 57th anniversary of the wall’s construction. Both Gothe and Schulsche suggested there could be more of the wall still hiding in the Berlin undergrowth, particularly around the edges of the city.