Objective facts and authentic eyewitness accounts inspire visitors to independently reflect on GDR repression and contemporary democratic responsibility.
The future permanent exhibition aims to inspire self-reflection rather than lecture, using objective facts and historical traces to guide visitors toward their own insights. The design delivers functional, ergonomic, and non-judgmental information, carefully navigating the tension between depicting state repression and the misleading nostalgia of "GDR cultural heritage."
Visitors are challenged to take a stance both physically and conceptually. Looking "behind the scenes" gradually reveals the full dimension of the system of fear, while humanizing the individuals behind the state security apparatus. Rather than providing easy answers, this insight raises new questions and appeals to the visitors' sense of political responsibility. Authentic biographies of contemporary witnesses prompt individuals to compare historical behavior with personal experiences, sharpening their awareness of modern tendencies toward repression and authoritarianism.
- Client
- Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the GDR
- Location
- Berlin
- Type
- Permanent Exhibition
- Services
- Concept and design, cost estimate (competition)
- Team
- Tobias Jochinke, Stefan Nowak, Petra Knyrim
