A section of the Berlin Wall, a Cold War remnant, stands in Suwanee, Georgia, a bucolic Atlanta suburb

SUWANEE, Georgia — The reminders of the past are often everywhere we look, even if they’re not exactly in the place where the history happened.

In Suwanee Town Center, a 12-foot-tall, 7,000-pound section of the Berlin Wall stands as a silent sentinel, keeping alive the story of a different era that some might argue we’re starting to forget.

Montenegro native Ray Stanjevich and first-generation American Suzanne Cartwright, who were at the time the owners of the Friends Suwanee Grill, bought the historic artifact at auction in 2013 for $23,500. The wall segment was discovered in an East Berlin work camp, and federal officials later seized it to provide restitution for Ponzi scheme victims.

It was displayed in front of Suwanee City Hall and outside the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center in Lawrenceville pending auction. Before it was moved to its current location in 2018, it was also displayed outside Stanjevich’s Suwanee restaurant.

“I was born in a communist country, and Suzanne’s mother immigrated from Germany after World War II,” Stanjevich previously said in a release. “We think it’s important to remember the past and not forget that many still live without the basic freedoms that we enjoy in the United States.”

In June 2018, the Suwanee City Council voted to accept the relic, and it is now on display in Town Center Park.

“We’re thrilled to be able to exhibit this section of the Berlin Wall,” Assistant City Manager Denise Brinson said in a release at the time. “It’s a cool way to bring an important piece of art and history to area residents. This display fits in well with Suwanee’s goal of making art accessible.”

The side that once faced West Berlin features graffiti that appears to show three buildings, a silhouetted figure, and an American flag. The formerly East Berlin-facing side largely lacks graffiti.

While it might seem out of place in the bucolic Atlanta suburb of Suwanee, the city isn’t the only unexpected destination where travelers can find sections of the wall that once divided Berlin. Other locations with sections on public display include Portland, Maine; Rapid City, South Dakota; and Christchurch, New Zealand.

The wall fell in 1989, and Germany re-unified the following year.

“Suzanne and I purchased the wall as a way to keep it in the community where we live and work,” Stanjevich said in an earlier release. “We believe it is important for kids to learn history because we too easily forget the bad things that have happened in the past.”