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