© visitBerlin, Foto: Andi Weiland
Accessible Sights
Barrier-free sights in Berlin accessible for wheelchair users, visually impaired and blind people as well as deaf and hearing impaired people. more
View of the Tränenpalast (Palace of Tears) in Berlin-Mitte.
© Stiftung Haus der Geschichte/Axel Thünker
During the GDR era, the Tränenpalast was the check-in hall for departures from East to West. An exhibition recalls everyday life in the GDR and the tearful fates.
Farewell and longing, hope and despair, joy and fear: a wide range of personal experiences and emotions are associated with the building erected in 1962 at Friedrichstraße station in Berlin-Mitte. The check-in hall was used by the SED dictatorship until 1990 for departures from the GDR to West Berlin. As a place of painful separation, the architecturally modern pavilion made of steel and glass was soon known in Berlin vernacular as the Tränenpalast (Palace of Tears).
Here, Germans from East and West experienced first-hand the impact of the Cold War and division on their lives. The pain of parting after meeting relatives and friends from the other part of Germany dominated their emotions. Anger and fear were added to this during the harassing controls.
Longing and despair gripped many East Germans, for whom this border seemed permanently closed. Those who were allowed to move to West Germany after their application to leave the country was approved felt joy and relief, often clouded by sadness at the loss of their homeland.
At the historic site, the foundation Haus der Geschichte conveys the effects of division and the border on the everyday lives of Germans. An original control cabin gives an idea of the processing situation. Collapses from exhaustion and more than 200 deaths prove that even a "legal" border crossing at Friedrichstraße station was an ordeal. Long waits and the humiliating check-in process were particularly hard on older people.
Numerous dramatic as well as everyday stories bring the atmosphere of this unique place between East and West to life: For example, the paths of GDR travel cadres and forced expatriates, employees of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) who were smuggled to the West as "scouts" and private travelers from West Germany crossed here.
East Germans who wanted to escape were also drawn to the Friedrichstraße station border crossing point despite the strict surveillance and an almost perfect control system. Almost all escape attempts failed. In the second half of the 1980s, there were more and more incidents involving people trying to leave the country who entered the Tränenpalast without valid papers. They saw this provocation as the last way out of the GDR, as they hoped to be ransomed by West Germany after their imprisonment.
On November 9, 1989, the border opened at Friedrichstraße station. The reunification process, which was initially open, proceeded rapidly. On July 2, 1990, Berliners celebrated the first direct S-Bahn journey from East to West via Friedrichstraße station. With the end of the division of Germany, the Tränenpalast lost its original function.
© visitBerlin, Foto: Andi Weiland
Barrier-free sights in Berlin accessible for wheelchair users, visually impaired and blind people as well as deaf and hearing impaired people. more
© dpa
The TV Tower, the Brandenburg Gate, Museum Island and the Reichstag building - no other Berlin district has more sights than Mitte. more