German property developer has rejected calls to halt work to remove one of the last remaining stretches of the Berlin Wall, despite angry protests against the plan.

Maik Uwe Hinkel says work to move a 22-metre section of the 1.3 kilometre section of the wall will resume next week.

On Friday,hundreds of protesters stopped workers from moving the 19 concrete slabs, each about 1.2 metres wide, to make way for an access road to a luxury condominium being built on the banks of the reunited city's Spree river.

Hinkel said in a statement Saturday that his company has all necessary permits to move the mural-covered slabs and the road will also benefit the reconstruction of a bridge destroyed in World War II.

The East Side Gallery is the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall and is one of the German capital's most popular tourist attractions. It was recently restored at a cost of more than $3 million to the city.

The wall section stood on the eastern side of the elaborate border strip built by communist East Germany and, when the border was closed, carried none of the graffiti that covered the western side of the wall.

On Friday, a protester carried a sign asking "does culture no longer have any value?" in bold letters, with "die yuppie scum" written in smaller letters.

"If we destroy it now, we have nothing left to illustrate our past — we have to fight for keeping this historic document," said artist Kani Alavi, whose mural of hundreds of people streaming through an open wall is not affected by the construction

Another small section of the East Side Gallery was removed a few years ago in conjunction with the building of a new sports and concert arena.

The East Side Gallery was transformed into an open-air gallery months after East Germany opened its borders on Nov. 9, 1989, and is now covered in colorful murals painted by about 120 artists.