Car Crash Damages Poland’s Famous Solidarity Wall

Polish police say a car crash has knocked down a historic wall that unemployed electrician Lech Walesa jumped over in 1980 to lead a Gdansk shipyard strike that grew into the country’s massive Solidarity freedom movement.

Part of the Gdansk Shipyard wall was placed in downtown Gdansk as a symbol of the drive for freedom in the 1980s that eventually toppled communism in Central and Eastern Europe.

A spokeswoman for the Gdansk police, Aleksandra Siewert, said Tuesday that section of the wall was destroyed when a car crashed into it after colliding Monday with another car. It was not immediately clear if or when the wall could be repaired.

Walesa won the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize for leading Solidarity. He also served as Poland’s president from 1990-95.