The Borderland Museum Eichsfeld is a history museum located in Central Germany at the former inner-German border between

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

and

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. It deals with the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

in general and the German division in specific. The museum exhibitions are situated in a complex of buildings at a former border crossing point near

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

and

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

in the

Eichsfeld The Eichsfeld ( or ; English: ''Oak-field'') is a historical region in the southeast of the state of Lower Saxony (which is called "Untereichsfeld" = lower Eichsfeld) and northwest of the state of Thuringia ("Obereichsfeld" = upper Eichsfeld) in th ...

region. The museum area also includes a circular hiking trail. It leads along the former

Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its s ...

, which was transformed into the

European Green Belt The European Green Belt initiative is a grassroots movement for nature conservation and sustainable development along the corridor of the former Iron Curtain. The term refers to both an environmental initiative as well as the area it concer ...

after the

had ended.

Historical development

After the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, defeated Germany was divided into four occupation zones. The

region and many families who lived here were separated by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and the Soviet zone, and from 1949 onwards by the two German states. As early as the 1950s and ‘60s, the

region was the site of mass expulsions from the border area and dramatic escape attempts from East to West Germany. What started as a demarcation line turned into a heavily guarded border with barbed wire fences, minefields and observation towers. Here a border crossing point was established in summer 1973, which was used by millions of travellers, mostly West Germans, until the opening of the GDR borders in 1989. Passport controls were abandoned shortly after midnight on November 10, 1989, resulting from 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 eve ...

. In July 1990, three months ahead of the

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 ...

, the border and its crossing point had lost their purpose.

Exhibition

At this historical place the Borderland Museum Eichsfeld was opened in 1995. It is located in the original buildings of the former border crossing point, allowing its visitors to see the original rooms, such as the passport checking rooms and the detention cells. The museum presents various aspects of the history of the GDR and the division of Germany on an area of 1000 square metres. All the information in the museum is displayed in both German and English. The permanent exhibition deals with the division of Germany, the GDR border regime and the everyday life of East and West Germans living in the border area. Further topics include the organization of state and society in

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

East Germany and the role of the

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...

as well as the

Peaceful Revolution The Peaceful Revolution (german: Friedliche Revolution), as a part of the Revolutions of 1989, was the process of sociopolitical change that led to the opening of East Germany's borders with the West, the end of the ruling of the Socialist Unity ...

and the border opening in 1989. Additionally to the permanent exhibition, the Borderland Museum also offers special exhibitions on a regular basis. The museum has 45.000 to 60.000 visitors from all over the world every year.

Open-air museum

A six kilometres long circular trail leads from the Borderland Museum Eichsfeld across the borderland, featuring multiple information panels about the former border. On their way along the former inner-German border, the visitors can take a look at preserved parts of the original border installations, such as observation towers of the GDR border troops and the Federal Border Guards. As the museum is part of the

, it also addresses ecological topics, natural borders and the ecological impact of the

https://www.bund.net/fileadmin/user_upload_bund/publikationen/gruenes_band/gruenes_band_traces_of_the_past.pdf accessed on: October 22, 2020

External links

Website of the Borderlandmuseum

More information in an English-language podcast

References

{{Authority control Cold War museums in Germany Cold War museums History museums in Germany Museums in Thuringia Museums in Germany 1995 establishments in Germany Eichsfeld (district)