Borders, Violence, History

The tour through selected exhibition rooms presents rare objects from the collection that illustrate the history of German division, flight and violence. It spans the period from a family’s flight into religious exile during the confessional schism of the Holy Roman Empire to a boundary stone marking a city divided after 1914 on the German-Dutch border. In this way, experiences of flight and border crossings within Germany are examined even before the well-known division of Germany during the Cold War. The highlight of the tour, however, is the original diary of the student Peter Rutzen from 1964. Using city maps, newspapers and eyewitness accounts, his dangerous attempt to dig an escape tunnel beneath Bernauer Strasse is explained. The tunnel enabled 57 people to flee to the West and ended in a shootout with the Stasi.