BERLIN�Erika Thiele remembers taking her two children to the Berlin Wall when they lived in communist East Germany and telling them that there was "another world on the other side."
On Sunday, the 58-year-old kindergarten director was among thousands of protesters who gathered to demand that the longest remaining segment of that wall remain protected from a plan to tear down a 25-yard-long stretch of it to help make way for a condominium development.
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Close Getty ImagesA protester, left, at the East Side Gallery section of the Berlin Wall, as police stand guard.
More than two decades after the Berlin Wall succumbed to the will of Ms. Thiele and millions of other East Germans to see what lay beyond its concrete ridges, Berliners are fighting to keep the remaining traces of the city's nearly 30-year separation intact.
But the popular desire to preserve the physical remains of the wall has run up against the economic realities of the cash-strapped city's need to develop long-barren areas of the capital, including the so-called death strip where many people trying to flee East Germany lost their livesdied.
The building's developer, Maik Uwe Hinkel, said the relocation of a section of the wall is necessary not only to allow street access for the luxury tower, but also is demanded by the city to allow access to a planned waterside park and bridge for pedestrians and cyclists. While the city has signed off on the plan, few local politicians appear eager to be seen as endorsing it. The city and developer signed the contract stipulating the wall's removal in the first half of February.
Many Berliners believe that tampering with the wall, which is protected as a historical monument, shows how the city's identity is shifting amid development and commercialization.
Protesters last week blocked workers from removing the tennis-court-length piece of the East Side Gallery, a 1,400-yard section of the wall covered with artwork running alongside the Spree River. It is one of the city's most popular tourist destinations.
Demonstrators vowed to return on Monday and over the course of the week in an attempt to block further attempts at the removal.
Many protesters point out signs posted along the gallery threatening those who damage it with criminal prosecution.
"The people with the money don't obey [the signs]," Ms. Thiele said. "This is history, and it belongs to us Germans. The whole world knows that."
On Sunday, one protester held a placard that read: "How much does history cost?" Another sign read: "Capitalism vs. History."
Mr. Hinkel, the high-rise's developer, said 19 slabs of the wall, each four feet long, will be relocated "only a few meters." beside the East Side Gallery.
"I wish to emphasize that, as a Berlin-based company, we are just as interested in the preservation of the East Side Gallery as a historical monument as are Berliners and people in the entire world," he said.
The opening of a section of the wall would not only benefit the high-rise residents, but is a condition set by the district of Berlin, Mr. Hinkel said, in order to allow access to a planned pedestrian bridge�the Brommybr�cke, a bridge destroyed during World War II�that the city is set to build in coming years.
Mr. Hinkel said he is for now stopping work to remove the stretch of wall so he doesn't further stoke tensions, and to have a chance to have discussions with city officials.
He said he has received threats, and email messages with the phrase: "Heil Hinkel."
It is unclear what legal grounds protesters would employ to halt removal of the wall section, given that the local district has granted Mr. Hinkel's company permission to proceed. Nevertheless, if the protests continue to swell in numbers, the developer may be forced to accept further delays.
The East Side Gallery was created in 1990, when artists from around the world painted more than 100 works on the part of the inner wall that kept East Germans from crossing into the security zone.
Other sections have been moved in the past, one across from the O2 World arena, which opened in 2008.Bbut the previous relocations didn't spark the same level of controversy.
The high-rise, called "Living Levels," will feature floor-to-ceiling views of the Spree River, and will come at a price ranging from �2,750 to �10,000 ($3,580 to $13,018) per square meter, Mr. Hinkel said.
Berlin has long stood as an island of low rents and abundant space, making it home to a thriving counterculture unable to persist in more expensive international cities.
Former industrial spaces near the Spree River are home to artist spaces, anarchist collectives and electronic-music clubs that draw weekend revelers from around Europe.
But several large office-space and hotel developments have been carried out or planned alongside the river under the project the city calls Mediaspree.
While many welcome the economic boost, others fear the city's character is being lost. But at Sunday's demonstration, one protester, Simon Hughes, a 25-year-old who offers English-language tours of Berlin, said there was little sense in the planned relocation. "The reason you put stuff under memorial protection is to protect it," he said. "This is a slap in the face of the people who made the fall of the wall happen."
Over the weekend, tourists snapped photos of the East Side Gallery paintings, which were restored around the time of the city's commemoration of the 20th anniversary of reunification.
A group of tourists gathered around one of most well-known paintings, one of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev kissing East German leader Erich Honecker on the mouth.
One visitor said he had come because he was afraid it would be his last chance to see the art.
Many in the city note the irony that this time, as opposed to the historic 1989 demonstrations that led to the wall's demise, the protesters are showing up to preserve it.
Write to James Angelos at james.angelos@dowjones.com
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