Berlin Wall Foundation

Berlin, Germany

The Berlin Wall Foundation documents the history of the Berlin Wall and the migration movements from the GDR that occurred as part and under the impact of Germany’s Division and the East-West conflict in the 20th Century. It commemorates and conveys the history of divided Berlin and Germany at the historical site by focusing on the following topics: the history of the German Division and the Berlin Wall, everyday life with the Wall in East and West, migrations in divided Germany and flight from the GDR, victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Wall art, peaceful revolution and reunification.

The Foundation runs six memorial sites in the Berlin metropolitan area. Each location has a particular profile evolving around site-specific themes and research, local conditions and target groups, and thus educational concepts and content. Out of the six sites, the following four have participated in the I AM project:

The Berlin Wall Memorial is the central memorial site to commemorate the Division of Berlin. It includes the only section of the Berlin Wall that has been preserved, along with the border grounds behind it. The 1.4-kilometer open-air exhibition runs along the former border strip at Bernauer Strasse illustrating the history of the Wall and its impacts on urban space and people.

Situated in the original building, the Marienfelde Refugee Center Museum is dedicated to the history of flight and migration in divided Germany. This site embodies both the past and present situation of migration, since the adjacent building serves today as temporary housing for refugees.

The East Side Gallery is a rather complex memorial site with multilayered meanings: a place of remembrance of the division of the city and the people who died here, a testimony to the euphoria of the Fall of the Wall, and finally a reminder of the sorrowful experiences of the year of upheaval, 1990.

The Günter Litfin Memorial is located in a former watchtower. The memorial was founded by Jürgen Litfin to preserve the memory of his brother Günter, who tried to cross the border and was shot by GDR border soldiers in 1961.

The different sites of the Berlin Wall Foundation invite visitors to discover contemporary history in its local and global dimensions. Our educational work opens up multi-layered access to history for a diverse audience, taking into account their specific needs. The educational work invites participants to acquire an active understanding of history, by getting involved with historical topics, actors, and processes via the authentic site, objects and collections, as well as contemporary witnesses. Our educational program encourages a critical examination of the past, drawing attention to different, even contradictory perspectives to enable differentiated discussions oriented towards the present.