L*Ost: Historical Site: Joint Visit to the Marienfelde Refugee Reception Camp Memorial, Guided Tour of the Exhibition

We will visit the memorial site in Marienfelde together, the former refugee reception camp. People who left the GDR from Berlin before 1989 or successfully fled and had no friends, acquaintances, or relatives to stay with initially were housed in the Marienfelde refugee reception camp. From here, they went through all the bureaucratic steps necessary for naturalization in the Federal Republic of Germany and relocation to a new place of residence. The exhibition shows individual fates and stories, objects from refugees, the process of emigration, flight, and entry, as well as the difficulties associated with settling into a new life. The exhibition, which has so far focused on emigration from the GDR before the fall of the Wall, will be dismantled next year and a new exhibition will be established. In the decades of German division from 1949 to 1989, a large part of the GDR population left the country for the Federal Republic. At least four million people fled or moved from East to West. They often took considerable risks and burdens upon themselves. While leaving the GDR was difficult, entering the Federal Republic was easy. The West German state maintained a citizenship that included GDR citizens after 1945. The exhibition shows individual fates and stories, objects from refugees, the process of emigration, flight, and entry, as well as the difficulties associated with settling into a new life. The exhibition, which has so far focused on emigration from the GDR before the fall of the Wall, will be dismantled next year and a new exhibition will be established. In the decades of German division from 1949 to 1989, a large part of the GDR population left the country for the Federal Republic. At least four million people fled or moved from East to West. They often took considerable risks and burdens upon themselves. While leaving the GDR was difficult, entering the Federal Republic was easy. The West German state maintained a citizenship that included GDR citizens after 1945.