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AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE IRON CURTAIN
Many sites also aim to inform visitors and the younger generation that never
experienced the wall themselves about the period, the political circumstances
and the border itself. There are two main museums: the Documentation
Centre at Bernauer Straβe which is Berlin’s official museum of the Berlin Wall
and the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, which is a private museum. The stories
told in the different places range between factual information about the wall
itself and personal stories of people affected by the wall. The Documentation
Centre, where research is also carried out, has a more academic background
whilst the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie is based more on commercial
grounds. Although some of the stories told at the different museums are based
on the same facts the different approaches makes for two very different
museums. At the Documentation Centre we find an exhibition where the
visitors are allowed a lot of their own space and thoughts in order to process
the information provided through information boards, photos and films. The
reconstructed sections of Berlin Wall in their original place also help make the
wall seem more real here (Figure 12). The site appeals to both people who have
personal memories of the wall as well as visitors. “Sometimes I go to
Bernauerstrasse just to remind myself of how it really was” I was told by one
woman from the former GDR at the site. But others are critical to the
reconstruction here. Axel Klausmeier, the director of the Documentation
Centre, explains how people have such different experiences of the wall that it
is difficult to create a memorial that will please everyone. He also says that for
many people in East Berlin the wall was so inaccessible to people during its
time as a divider that memorials connected to the wall itself does not really
hold much importance to them (Klausmeier, 2009, pers. comm. 16 th February).
At the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie the emphasis lies on the
experience of your visit (Figure 13). The stories here may be sold to you in a
more sensationalistic way but the impressions you get here stay with you. This
aim of providing an “experience” of the Berlin Wall may not always consider
complete authenticity, especially in the exhibited material, but is more aimed
at selling the stories to the visitors. As I walk through the Haus am Checkpoint
Charlie I suddenly find myself amongst a group of American teenagers,
probably around 14–15 years old. They move through the museum at a
quicker pace than me and I decide to tag along, curious of their conversations
as they experience the wall history. They are preoccupied with the exhibition
and take no notice of me, in fact it is quite interesting to see how much the
exhibition catches their interest. As they move along they pick up information
from the different boards but in particular they look at the large scales photos
of people escaping, or failing to do so, across the Berlin Wall. As we go along,
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