ABOUT

Although many Germans are better off than ever, 30 years after the fall of the Wall the society is more divided than ever before in political, social, and ecological issues. The willingness to put up with controversial opinions is decreasing as rapidly as the retreat into digital echo chambers is increasing.

How do we overcome the new “walls in people's minds” and bring people into a conversation who would otherwise talk about rather than with each other?

On the occasion of the historical anniversary of the day the Wall came down, we launched a digital initiative that makes the invisible walls of bias visible, so people can start a dialogue on the non-profit platform “Diskutier Mit Mir” (Discuss With Me). We collected countless controversial comments from the web through social listening and brought them together as AR installations in the form of up to 4-meter high and dozens of meter-long border walls right in the center of Berlin. Not only did the walls show the enormous opinion blockades of both sides, but they also could be actively overturned and thus triggered 1:1 chats between people with starkly opposing opinions.

Since the end of 2019, the Invisible Wall can now also be discovered and “talked down” with any smartphone anywhere and at any time: in public places or on private property, before elections as well as during petition campaigns.