Border Experience
Permanent exhibition 'Border Experiences' in the 'Tränenpalast', 2011
Tears of good bye, longing, rage and desperation – no other place in Germany concentrated the emotions of the German separation like the ‘Tränenpalast’ – ‘palace of tears’, the famous checkpoint and border control for the departure from the East into the West at Berlin’s Bahnhof Friedrichstraße. Here the people directly felt the strong impact of the German separation on their personal lives. The ‘Tränenpalast’ only lost its function as a checkpoint after the fall of the Wall in 1989.
Within the historic listed building of the ‘Tränenpalast’ the State of Germany initiated the permanent exhibition “BorderExperience. Realities of German Separation”. Showing many biographical examples, 570 artefacts and 30 media installations on 600 sqm the exhibition portrays German every day life in the context of borders and separation.
COORDINATION translated the historical content and narrative of the exhibition into a spatial design and was responsible for the implementation and realisation of the permanent exhibition. The Exhibition was officially opened by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel on September 14th 2011.
Three months after the grand opening the 100.000th visitor was welcomed to the exhibition. Prof. Dr. Hans Walter Hütter, president of Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, is very pleased by the success of the exhibition and especially moved by the visitors’ personal reactions. “The exhibition in the ‘Tränenpalast’ particularly appeals to the visitors on an emotional level. In this authentic and historic space we found ways to hit the right nerve with our vivid, biographically orientated exhibition concept.”
Open: Tue–Fri 9:00–19:00, Sa–So 10:00–18:00
Place: ‘Tränenpalast’ at Bahnhof Friedrichstraße, Reichstagsufer 17, 10117 Berlin
