The Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer (Berlin Wall Memorial) commemorates the division of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

by the Berlin Wall and the deaths that occurred there. The monument was created in 1998 by the Federal Republic of Germany and the Federal State of Berlin. It is located on

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at the corner of

Ackerstraße The Ackerstraße is a street in Berlin which runs northwest from near the Liesenstraße – Scheringstraße traffic circle in Gesundbrunnen to Invalidenstraße, where it turns south, terminating at the Linienstraße in Mitte. History On 22 ...

and includes a Chapel of Reconciliation, the Berlin Wall Documentation Centre, a section of the former border, a window of remembrance and a visitor center.

History

The idea of a memorial was suggested by the

Deutsches Historisches Museum The German Historical Museum (german: Deutsches Historisches Museum), known by the acronym DHM, is a museum in Berlin, Germany devoted to German history. It describes itself as a place of "enlightenment and understanding of the shared history ...

(German Historical Museum) on behalf of the federal government of Berlin, and architects Kohlhoff & Kohlhoff were commissioned to design it. The cost of the competition and completion was 2.2 million

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. The federal government took over the construction costs, while the state covers the maintenance costs. On 11 September 2008 the Berlin House of Representatives approved the opening of the memorial on the anniversary of the day that the Berlin Wall fell. By 2013, an extension was to be completed. Original relics of the border were to be shown, with missing parts marked in steel on the ground. The memorial was to be divided into four areas: *The wall and the ''Todesstreifen'' (death strip) *Destruction of the city *Building of the wall *"Es geschah an der Mauer" (It happened at the wall) At the corner of Gartenstraße and

, a visitor centre was opened. The outdoor area of the memorial west of

Berlin Nordbahnhof Berlin Nordbahnhof (until 1950 Stettiner Bahnhof) is a railway station in the Mitte district of Berlin, Germany. It is served by the Berlin S-Bahn and local bus and tram lines. History First station In 1842, the ''Stettiner Bahnhof'' opened as t ...

was transformed into an Erinnerungslandschaft (memorial landscape). In 2006 there were over 220,000 visitors to the documentation centre, which is part of the memorial. Part of the memorial is located on

Description

Original wall

The memorial includes a long section of the wall as it was when the Wall fell. Seen from the west, a wall built from L-elements was lined by a sandy section, a lighted "Kolonnenweg", a signal fence, and an inner wall. Finally a tower was built within the complex. The area is not accessible to visitors; both ends of the original wall are closed by stainless steel. The northern wall bears the inscription "In Erinnerung an die Teilung der Stadt vom 13. August 1961 bis zum 9. November 1989 und zum Gedenken an die Opfer kommunistischer Gewaltherrschaft" ("In memory of the city's division from 13 August 1961 to 9 November 1989 and of the victims of communist tyranny").

Documentation centre

The documentation centre is located on the other side of

. It contains seminar rooms and exhibitions. The building includes a five-story observation tower.

Chapel of Reconciliation

The Chapel of Reconciliation was designed by architects Peter Roth and Rudolph Sass as a church and is oval in shape with a façade of wooden rods. The chapel includes a prayer room and materials from the former ''Versöhnungskirche'' (reconciliation church), which stood on the site until it was destroyed in 1985 because it was inside the border strip.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gedenkstatte Berliner Mauer Berlin Wall Monuments and memorials in Berlin Museums in Berlin Cold War museums in Germany