^

Origins - Development - Future
by Rainer Hildebrandt, Founder and Director of the Museum until his death
14.12.1914 - 09.01.2004

The first exhibition opened on the 19 October 1962 in an apartment with only two and a half rooms in famous Bernauer Straße. The street was divided along its whole length; the buildings in the east had been vacated and their windows were bricked up. We suggested that tourists be thankful to those border guards who do not shoot to kill: “See through the uniform!” Some guards saw that we understood, and after their own
escapes came to work with us. The large number of visitors encouraged us to look for new premises: on 14 June 1963 the “Haus am Checkpoint Charlie” was opened and became an island of freedom right next to the border. From here, through a small window, escape helpers could observe all movements at the border crossing; escapees were always welcome and supported, escape plans were worked out,
and injustice in the GDR was always fought against.

The aim was to document the “best border security system in the world” (GDR armed forces general Karl-Heinz Hoffmann) and the support of the protecting powers— until the tank confrontation between the USA/USSR. Further exhibitions followed: 1973 “Artists interpret THE WALL”, 1976: “Berlin - from a front-line city to Europe’s bridge”, 1984: “FROM GANDHI TO WALESA - non-violent struggle for human rights”.

Because of our friendly contacts with escape helpers we got hot-air balloons, escape cars, chairlifts, and a small submarine. We are grateful to resistance activists for a spring gun for the dismantling of which they had risked their lives and a piece of the wall’s tubular top-cladding, knocked off by “wall runner” John Runnings.

We can also call ourselves the first museum of international nonviolent protest. Our exhibits include: The Charta 77 typewriter, the hectograph of the illegal periodical “Umweltblätter” (“Environmental Pages”), Mahatma Gandhi’s diary and sandals and from Elena Bonner the death mask of her partner Andrei Sacharov.

There are over a hundred military museums in the world. But in an epoch of growing responsibility for our planet we can be sure that more museums of international non-violent protest will be established. “The world is so well built that against every injustice
there are stronger, vanquishing forces. ...From every injustice arises justice, from every untruth truth, from darkness light.” – Words of Mahatma Gandhi.

Rainer Hildebrandt balancing on the former Wallstrip at the Checkpoint Charlie.