The unassuming glass and steel building at Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse railway station – better known to locals as Tränenpalast, or the Palace of Tears, because it was the site of many painful farewells – has now been converted into a museum about life in divided Germany, reports Routard.
Built in 1962 while the country was divided by the Berlin Wall, the railway station also served as a border checkpoint, and was the location where family members had to say goodbye to their East German relatives before crossing back into West Berlin.
"Human fates were played out here," explained Chancellor Angela Merkel in a video greeting at the exhibit. As briefly-reunited families were separated again "one never knew exactly if one would see each other again."
Now the Foundation Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland has reopened the former railway station as a museum with the permanent exhibit Border experience: everyday life in divided Germany. The museum will feature films and interviews that illustrate what life was like in divided Germany, as well as other original artifacts, documents and photographs.