Students, faculty and community members gathered Monday at the HCC campus to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The event has particular significance for Honolulu Community College because we have one of the largest pieces of the wall anywhere in America.
The program included Hawaiian music welcome by the college’s MELE (Music and Entertainment Learning Experience) Program; remarks by Honolulu CC Chancellor Mike Rota, who recently returned from Germany, and Honolulu CC History Professor Pat Patterson; music and hula in a re-consecration ceremony by students from the college’s hula halau, Hawaiian Center and MELE Program; and a viewing of a short documentary on the fall of the wall.
Tina Mehnert, a designer and architect with Architects Hawai‘i, who had a hand in designing the monument that now stands at Honolulu CC, also spoke at the ceremony, along with Poima Sataua, ASUH-HCC Student Senate president.
HCC’s monument includes a three-ton piece of the wall t from Berlin Honolulu CC History Professor Rick Ziegler worked with a group of students to bring the piece of the wall to Hawai‘i.
In 2005, the Berlin Wall Freedom Monument was joined by a World Trade Center Memorial which includes an American flag is supported by the Twin Towers in stainless steel.
