Erinnerungsstätte Notaufnahmelager Marienfelde — Attraction in Berlin

Marienfelde is both a museum and a description of the situation. Rather than romanticizing it, what was is exhibited. The display cases contain original documents, propaganda from the SED (Social Unity Party), the State Security Service (Stasi), the entire apparatus that considered itself the only infallible. A sober chronicle of the refugee movement, an inventory of border crossings, applications for exit, and letters of hope, all neatly sorted. An exhibition is dedicated to films and works of art that the GDR preferred not to show, which is why the perpetrators and producers preferred to leave the country along with them. There are also recreated refugee rooms. Functional, dreary, cramped. It reeks of the past, but not of idealization. Marienfelde is the place where two states confront each other, both of which became history. For some, a warning, for others, a memory. For most, a stroke of luck that things didn't...

I was blessed to receive the escort of Gerhard, the creator of the exhibition, thanks to him I learned many things I would otherwise wouldn't understand from the exhibition (it's mostly in German) and some other facts and stories that are not even part of the exhibition. The staff of the museum is in general very welcoming and helpful, and the exhibition itself is well curated and organized, so the overall experience...

Very interesting place and history. The place was a litte like a travel back in time, when seeing the rooms on the upper floor. Very gentle and serviceminded staff. I highly reccomend...