Affording one of the most beautiful views of the cultural landscape, the Bridge is regarded as the symbol of the partition and reunification of East and West.  Unlike any other bridge in Germany, it was the stuff of tales, books and films. Hermetically sealed against publicity, it was here that three spectacular exchanges of agents took place during the Cold War.  Today the two different colours used to paint the Bridge remind us of this time: the shade of green sported by the steel girders on the Berlin side is considerably darker than on the Potsdam side. For 37 years the bridge was closed to ordinary traffic; as of 1952, the only civilians allowed to use the crossing were those who had been issued with a special permit. After the Wall was built in 1961 that, too, was forbidden. The only vehicles that were permitted to travel across the bridge were those of the Allied military mission. On the evening of 10th November 1989 the Glienicke Bridge was opened to citizens of the GDR and in July 1990 the checks on passports and identity documents were suspended.

Seized by the Soviet occupying forces, the building in the Leistikowstrasse became a prison for counterespionage. In addition to Soviet citizens, Germans were also incarcerated and tortured here until 1954.

Looking at the historic building in the city centre, you would never imagine that it had been a prison. The present monument and memorial against political constraint hosts an exhibition relating to the history of this site as a Soviet secret police and Stasi remand prison. 

November 2009 saw the opening of a new museum in the Villa Schöningen. A permanent exhibition documents the history of the Villa and the Glienicke Bridge and at the same time the story of the partitioning and reunification of Germany.  What has also emerged is a place that depicts the momentous events that took place during the period witnessed by these two historic edifices, from the days of the Great Elector, chronicling the rise of the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire and culminating in expropriation by the Nazis, the era of the GDR and the toppling of German partition.

The Permanent Exhibition:
The central theme is the story of the Glienicke Bridge: the Exhibition records developments from the time of the Potsdam Conference, the inauguration of the “Bridge of Unity“ (1949) and the role of the bridge in military missions.  The border post, which was the scene of consistent re-arming exercises from 1961 onwards and which featured a number of checkpoints and prohibited areas, not to mention its death strip, is depicted by means of schematics.  The background to the three agent exchange missions (1962, 1985, 1986) that made the “Bridge of Spies“ famous all over the world is portrayed.  A second central theme is the story of the people who lived and worked in the Villa Schöningen or in direct proximity to the border.

The architectural history part of the Exhibition documents the history of the Glienicke Bridge from the end of the 17th century onwards, starting with the first wooden bridge, progressing to the stone bridge built in accordance with plans drawn up by Karl Friederich Schinkel and proceeding to the construction of the iron bridge in 1907 and the rebuilding of the bridge following its destruction in the Second World War.


Themed Events/Offers:
The project is still at the development stage. More detailed information will be available from Summer 2009 at http://www.villa-schoeningen.de/. Guided tours will be available from the date of opening.

Villa Schöningen, Berliner Strasse 86, D-14467 Potsdam
Tel. +49 173 62 49 677, http://www.villa-schoeningen.de/, info@villa-schoeningen.de

Since 1999 the so-called ‘DOK Centre’ has staged, in a nursery refurbished as a monument, a selection of around 150 000 exhibits relating to everyday life in the GDR. Films and audio clips covering 40 years of East German history are also on show in addition to the exhibition.

Established under the name of "Stalinstadt" in 1950, Eisenhüttenstadt has, since 1961, ranked as the “first socialist town on German soil“.  Here an attempt was made to create a living environment for the “new man”. Based on a standard planning arrangement, 3- and 4-storey residential blocks were erected that included children’s day care facilities, schools and shopping facilities for around 7 000 inhabitants, the majority of whom worked in the (also newly-established) Eisenhütten state combine.  A show house built to 1950s specifications is on view to visitors at weekends in the town centre.

Between 1958 and 1960 a tightly sealed-off enclave for members and candidates for the Politbureau of the Central Committee of the SED emerged close to the village of Wandlitz to the north of Berlin. Prior to this, the GDR leaders lived mainly in villas on the Majakowskiring (Berlin-Niederschönhausen/District of Pankow). The Forest Enclave of Wandlitz featured an external and an internal ring to strengthen security and was only accessible with special permits.  The complex was under surveillance by the Stasi "Feliks Dzierzynski" Surveillance Regiment. In the internal zone there were 23 detached houses, a swimming pool, a club house with a cinema and a hotel restaurant, a plant centre, a polyclinic, a pistol shooting range, a sports field with a tennis court as well as social welfare buildings for staff employees and surveillance personnel. The sales outlet offered, in addition to high quality GDR products, goods from the West which could be exchanged for GDR currency. Today this is the site of a large rehab clinic which also makes use of the houses formerly occupied by the party leaders.

The former Pastor Hans-Peter Freimark has, in conjunction with a small society, amassed a collection of innumerable items from the GDR period.  He kept many of the materials himself or rescued them from the refuse skips after the ‘Wende’, in so doing enabling everyday life to be reconstructed with the help of original living rooms and bedrooms, children’s rooms, kitchens, even a co-operative store and an inn, as well as a virtually countless number of books.  Everything can be touched and/or inspected in detail.  There are individual sections relating to the National People’s Army (NVA), the satellite parties in the GDR and state security.

Museum of the “Soviet Internment Camp No. 7/No. 1 (1945-1950) in Sachsenhausen“
From August 1945 onwards the Soviet secret service used the area at the heart of the former National Socialist concentration camp at Sachsenhausen as Internment Camp No. 7 (No. 1 from 1948 onwards). By the time it was closed in March 1950, more than 60 000 persons had been detained, at least 12 000 of whom died from the terrible conditions they were forced to endure during detention. In the museum, the events are appropriately and worthily represented after a period of 50 years.

Permanent Exhibition “From Memory to the Monument. The History of the Memorial Site of Sachsenhausen 1950-1990”
The permanent exhibition present photographs, plans, artwork and studies produced by the designers, drawings, models, pieces of art, posters, clippings from old newsreels and numerous items relating to the history of the National Memorial Site and Monument of Sachsenhausen.  Its theme is the considerable changes and radical modifications carried out to the historic site by GDR architects and it illuminates important aspects of the political instrumentation of antifascism. The final section “The Monument Crumbles“ prefigures the subtle relaxation of State monopolisation of the memorial site.  Depicted are peace, church and regional activists and “segregated“ groups of victims who, during the Eighties, shook the foundations of the communist “heroes’ monopoly”. The gradual structural decay of the monument and memorial site in the GDR is also apparent.

The soil of Brandenburg is like the famous Swiss cheese.  No other region in Germany is riddled to quite the same extent with bunkers, command centres and other subterranean military installations. Today some of these have been turned into monuments that are open to visitors.  Tours of the former aerial defence bunker of Wünsdorf, the atom bunker for the leaders of the National People’s Army in Harnekop, the Special Site 301 in Wollenberg and the bunker at Garzau lead the visitor through passageways hundreds of metres and thickly encased in concrete.  A one day excursion offers amateur historians the opportunity to experience the oppressive atmosphere of the bunkers.

The villa complex at Neubabelsberg was home to prominent people in the world of cinema and politics.  During the Potsdam Conference Stalin, Truman and Churchill were domiciled here. Films have been produced in Babelsberg since 1912. This is where DEFA, the GDR’s film studio owned by the people, was located, in the time of the GDR. Today the museum of film in the centre of Potsdam has dedicated its permanent exhibition "Babelsberg – Faces of a Film City" to the chequered history of the Potsdam film studio, today Europe’s largest film and media centre. With its studios, workshops, stocks of costumes and other requisites, it attracts major Hollywood productions and well-known stars of the silver screen to the State capital.

In 1961 the longest documentary in the world began with the filming of girls and boys from the village of Golzow in the Oderbruch region on their first day at school.  Only completed in 2007, it provides a record of everyday life in the GDR, during the period of the ’Wende’ as well as after Reunification. The series of films, consisting of so-called portraits, is a chronicle of yearnings, successes, fears and, last but not least, happy as well as tragic events. The museum, which was re-opened in 2008 following a refit, presents the biography of the heroes of the film and features anecdotes, photographs, documents, letters and the original editing table of the authors Winfried and Barbara Junge. In addition, any of the films can be viewed and/or purchased here.  There are also several hundred reels stored here featuring unpublished material which is available to browse and which is also being reprocessed for chronicling.  Elke Hinkleman, a member of the museum team, is one of the actual “Children of Golzow“.

On 23rd October 1989, just a few days before the Wall came down, Heinz-Dieter Kallbach, a pilot with the GDR airline "Interflug" achieved a spectacular landing in a long-distance aircraft of the type Ilyushin IL 62 on a glider airfield only 860 m long in the north of the District of Havelland. This extraordinary feat of aeronautical expertise was entered in the Guinness Book of Records. Today the IL 62 houses an exhibition on the pioneer of aviation, Otto Lilienthal, who carried out his first attempts at flight not far from the airfield.  The aircraft has been affectionately given the first name of Lilienthal’s wife – “Lady Agnes”. Today weddings are held in the passenger aircraft which still sports its original insignia.

This museum, located in the centre of Cottbus, includes a room in which a typical GDR pharmacy dating from the 1960s and 70s is on display. The furnishings originate from the Adler-Apotheke in Fehrbellin. The exhibition features a large selection of GDR medicines, some of which retain their characteristic smell. In addition, the visitor can view documentary material covering the work of a pharmacist in the GDR spanning a period of 40 years.