Marienfelde refugee camp memorial museum

Marienfelde refugee camp memorial museum - darkometer rating : 2 - A specialized memorial museum on the wider topic of divided Germany , and Berlin in particular, and especially on the issue of refugees from the GDR , who used to be housed at this site as their first abode on arrival in the West. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations More background info: The refugee centre in Berlin Marienfelde was set up in 1953 to serve as a first emergency housing facility for those who had fled the GDR /East Berlin. Of the total of roughly 4 million people who left the East between 1949 and 1990, when the GDR ceased to exist and the whole of the Eastern Bloc collapsed, 1.35 million passed through Marienfelde. It was thus a most significant "gate to freedom" – a transitional place for new arrivals, where they would be looked after before being sent on to their new lives in the West, either in West Berlin or, more often, to various places in the West German mainland (if you consider West Berlin a virtual island, which it effectively was). For the GDR, the large numbers of refugees were both a sign of political defeat and an economic loss inasmuch as it was skilled workers and well-educated people who formed the majority of these refugees. The GDR was supposed to be a socialist paradise for workers, but in reality many people voted with their feet – and opted for the capitalist West, for freedom over socialism. Because of this continuing exodus and brain drain, the Berlin Wall was eventually built in 1961. It did its job in curbing the number of refugees, but not completely, of course. People still risked their lives, and some lost their lives, in attempts at overcoming this concrete obstacle (and in particular the death strip next to it!).