Unity

Tränenpalast

Tränenpalast, 2019.

Finally open, but still with controls: Crowds in front of the Tränenpalast on November 10, 1989.

TRÄNENPALAST

From Border Crossing to Museum

Thousands used to tremble here every day as to whether GDR officials would allow them to cross from East to West. Today, an exhibition at the historic site commemorates the division of Germany and Berlin.

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“When the so-called West Visitor went back home through this Tränenpalast, you never quite knew if you would see each other again”, recalls Angela Merkel, German chancellor from 2005 to 2021, of saying goodbye to her grandmother at the Friedrichstraße train station. It had been a border crossing since the Wall was built in 1961. While the other stations near the border were closed, here trains still ran to the western part of the city.

People travelling to the West were subject to particularly strict controls by border officials. This required space. In 1962, a building was erected north of the station that was initially intended to serve as a reception area, but was soon used to process people leaving the country: the Tränenpalast. It was given this name because of the many tears of farewell that people shed in front of the building. In the hall, there were narrow booths where travellers showed their passports to the taciturn inspectors. A former border guard admits: “We also did a bit of harassment, random screening and strict checks.” After inspection of the passport, the travellers walked along a corridor over to the building of the train station. Through a maze of stairs and passages, they reached one of the platforms. From there, the S-Bahn or trains headed west. Over the years, more and more people passed through this crossing, in 1988 alone about 10 million. The following year the Wall fell, and controls ended on July 1, 1990. No one was exposed to the fears and oppression anymore that the Tränenpalast could cause until then.

Even before reunification, the first freely elected GDR government placed the Tränenpalast under a preservation order as a historical monument. A cultural entrepreneur rented the vacant building from the state of Berlin, and artists and world musicians performed there. In 2000, the Berlin Senate sold the neighbouring open space on Friedrichstraße to an investor who later also took over the Tränenpalast. Historians proposed that it be used to convey how German division had shaped everyday life. The Stiftung Haus der Geschichte developed an exhibition for this purpose, in which people can also learn about the Peaceful Revolution and the unification process. Thus, in 2011, the site of division became a place of remembrance. The visitors’ book says: “Everything shown here has touched me emotionally very much, because many things that I thought I had already processed came up again. The confinement, the pressure, all this dictatorial behaviour, the coercion ... Good that this has been overcome!”

TRÄNENPALAST

Contemporary Witnesses Report

During the German division, the Tränenpalast in East Berlin was the scene of dramatic farewells. East Berliners recount their moving experiences at this site and how they shaped their view of the GDR regime.

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Intro

Karl-Heinz Richter helps friends to flee.

Christine Köndgen falls in love in the West.

Paul van Dyk has an unpleasant encounter.

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Tränenpalast

During the German division, the departure hall at Friedrichstraße in East Berlin was the site of painful farewells. Relatives from the West returned home via the so-called Tränenpalast. Friends left the GDR – sometimes forever. Today the Stiftung Haus der Geschichte commemorates the German division with an exhibition at this historic site.

CONTEMPORARY WITNESS

Karl-Heinz Richter

Karl-Heinz Richter smuggled friends from East to West. He reports on how he helped them hop on the Moscow-Paris Express near the Friedrichstraße train station to get to the West.

"And then it was actually clear to me: The spot had not been given away after all. So it was clean. And then we started to escape. We informed other comrades and said: You want to go over there? – 'Yep.' – And now you’re actually staying here, now we won’t let you go home anymore. That’s how it was all planned. Then we took them to this place and explained everything on the spot. So basically, ten minutes before the train left, the buddies were told by us how it was going to work. But they trusted us and implemented it immediately. It was pretty crazy."

CONTEMPORARY WITNESS

Christine Köndgen

Christine Köndgen returned to East Berlin from a journey to the West via Friedrichstraße train station. She talks about how she fell in love in Hesse but didn’t know whether this East-West relationship had any future.

"And then I said to him: I have to go back through this Wall to East Berlin and it goes up again afterwards. It only opened for me once. I don’t even know how we’re going to do all that. And if you do, you’ll have to get through the Wall somehow, I can’t imagine that it is possible. Euphorically, I rode back and was welcomed here by my family. My parents picked me up again here, at Friedrichstraße. I went through the Tränenpalast for the first time when I left the country, I forgot to mention that. You always had to go through a strange folding door in the Friedrichstraße S-Bahn station, which I swung open like this. My parents were standing there, and I said to my mother, “Well, Mom, would you like to have a new son-in-law?"

CONTEMPORARY WITNESS

Paul van Dyk

The world famous DJ Paul van Dyk grew up in East Berlin. While still a child, together with his mother he brought friends to the Tränenpalast for their departure. What happened there, he recalls, let his mother have doubts about the GDR.

"I had a girlfriend at the time whose family had also applied to leave the country. They were allowed to leave the country and we took them to the so-called Tränenpalast at Friedrichstraße. I think one of the points was when the corresponding official there somehow put the Kalashnikov in front of my chest... and pushed me away. I think that was one of the points where my mother somehow recognized: This is not how it can be and how it should be."

Close Memories

Snapshots

A border control booth in the exhibition in the Tränenpalast. A hand holds a smartphone showing the museum podcast. In the background, separated by a pane of glass, is a stamp and a uniform hangs on the wall. — Stiftung Haus der Geschichte/Christoph Petras

Control Booth

Most East Germans were not allowed to enter the building before 1989. The podcast, in German, of the Stiftung Haus der Geschichte explains why.

People pass through the border control checkpoint in the entrance hall. — Stiftung Haus der Geschichte/Nelly Rau-Häring

A Clear Path

In the first half of 1990, the border guards were still sitting in the Tränenpalast, but they hardly stopped people anymore.

Nina Hagen, Udo Lindenberg, Ben Becker and other celebrities in front of the red neon sign tRÄNENpALAST on a piece of the Berlin Wall with graffiti. — picture-alliance/SCHROEWIG/CS

Big Stage

Musicians and artists performed at the Tränenpalast until 2006. In February 2004, Udo Lindenberg (centre) celebrated the end of his anniversary tour with singer Nina Hagen (left) and actor Ben Becker (right).

Close up of the windows and the upper entrance area of the Tränenpalast with the German, Russian and French inscription: Departure. — Stiftung Haus der Geschichte/Axel Thünker

Traces of History

This original inscription was uncovered during the renovation of the building. Today it stands above the entrance to the exhibition “Tränenpalast. Site of German Division”.

Suitcases with museum objects in the exhibition. On the right Hans Walter Hütter, Angela Merkel and Bernd Neumann. — Stiftung Haus der Geschichte/Stephan Klonk

Opening

Chancellor Angela Merkel (2005-2021) and Minister of State for Culture Bernd Neumann (right, 2005-2013) were accompanied by Hans Walter Hütter, President of the Stiftung Haus der Geschichte (2007-2021), through the newly opened exhibition in the Tränenpalast in 2011.

TRÄNENPALAST

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