Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0403-016, Berlin, Bahnhof Friedrichstraße, Grenzübergang

The ''Tränenpalast'' ( en, "Palace of Tears") is a former border crossing point between East and West Berlin, at

Berlin Friedrichstraße station Berlin Friedrichstraße () is a railway station in the German capital Berlin. It is located on the Friedrichstraße, a major north-south street in the Mitte district of Berlin, adjacent to the point where the street crosses the river Spree. Unde ...

, which was in operation between 1962 and 1989. It is now a museum with exhibitions about

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

during the Cold War period and about the process of

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

. It was the border crossing for travellers on the

S-bahn The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban-suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble c ...

U-bahn Rapid transit in Germany consists of four U-Bahn systems and fourteen S-Bahn systems. The U-Bahn commonly understood to stand for Untergrundbahn (''underground railway'') are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while ...

and trains going between East and West Germany. It was used only for westbound border crossings. It had separate checkpoints for West Berliners, West Germans, foreigners, diplomats, transit travellers and East Germans. The term ''Tränenpalast'' is derived from the tearful partings that took place in front of the building between western visitors and East German residents who were not permitted to travel to West Berlin.

Border station during the time of the Berlin Wall

Although Berlin Friedrichstraße station was located entirely in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as West Berlin. From 13 August 1961 u ...

, because of the Berlin Wall some S-bahn and U-bahn lines were accessible only from

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under m ...

. Travellers in West Berlin could use the station to transfer between those lines, or to cross into

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. The ''Tränenpalast'' was built after the volume of traffic and the constraints of the lower level of the main building made it necessary to expand.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall

After the

fall of the Berlin Wall The fall of the Berlin Wall (german: Mauerfall) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain and one of the series of ...

, the building was used as a nightclub and stage until 2006.Tränenpalast website
Retrieved 17 January 2019 It was listed as a protected historic monument on 2 October 1990 by the GDR government, a day before German reunification, which was on 3 October 1990.

Museum

In 2008 the ''Tränenpalast'' became a federal memorial site. On 15 September 2011, the

Haus der Geschichte Haus der Geschichte (officially ''Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland'', i.e. "House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany") is a museum of contemporary history in Bonn, Germany. With around one million visitors ever ...

opened the museum with exhibitions about Berlin during the Cold War. It displays original artefacts, documents, photographs and audio-visual material about the checkpoint and it provides an overview of the German reunification process. It was opened by German Chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Op ...

on 14 September 2011. In its first two weeks more than 30,000 people visited the museum. Entrance is free.

Gallery

During the Cold War

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-A0706-0010-001, Berlin, Bahnhof Friedrichstraße, Glashalle, Eingang.jpg, Entrance to the Tränenpalast.

During the Fall of the Berlin Wall

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0403-311, Berlin, Bahnhof Friedrichstraße, Grenzkontrolle.jpg, Custom checks by East German officers on those exiting East Berlin File:Stempel Grenzabfertigung Berlin Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse im westdeutschen Reisepass.jpg, Passport stamp of the border crossing ''Friedrichstrasse''.

Post German Reunification

File:Berlin Traenenpalast 2008-04-24.jpg, Construction near the ''Tränenpalast'' in 2008.

References

External links

Tränenpalast Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tranenpalast Buildings and structures in Berlin Berlin Wall Berlin border crossings Allied occupation of Germany Museums in Berlin Cold War museums in Germany Buildings and structures in Mitte