The border regime of the GDR considerably sharpened its grip at the beginning of the 1950s. The demarcation line was extended to form a 500-meter-wide “border protection strip,” which was forbidden to enter. In addition, a five-kilometer-wide “exclusion zone” was established, from which a total of 11,000 people were expelled and forcibly resettled. Several homesteads near the border were forcibly cleared and destroyed (German: “geschleift”).

Contrary to the previous public assurances of the then DDR-Staatsratsvorsitzenden (GDR Council of State Chairman) Walter Ulbricht, further tightened regulations for inner-German border security came into force on August 13, 1961. By the 1st of April 1962, the border was systematically fortified in three stages, wired mines, roadblocks as well as observation towers, and over 614 kilometers of minefields.

In the early 1970s, measures along the border were tightened once again and fragmentation mines were installed on the expanded metal fence. These “self-firing devices” inflicted the most serious, often fatal injuries on refugees. After the signing of the CSCE Helsinki Final Act, the self-firing devices were dismantled, but a “signal fence” was constructed 500 meters inland to deter and apprehend “border violators”.

On the 1st of December 1946, the “Deutsche Grenzpolizei” (Border Police) was founded. After the founding of the GDR in 1949, it was placed under the direction of the Ministry of the Interior in 1952, and later the “NVA” (National People’s Army) from 1961 to 1973. In 1974, they were independently established as the „Grenztruppen der DDR” (Border Troops of the GDR). The border regiment “Florian Geyer”, at Mount Rasdorf  was responsible for monitoring the sensitive area “Thuringian Balcony” a point where the territory of the GDR extended furthest into West German territory.

Initially, there was no uniformly regulated order for the GDR Border Troops to use armed force at the border. In 1982, the GDR People’s Chamber passed the so-called “Schießbefehl” (order to shoot), this being the use of weapons to prevent crimes, which included unauthorized border crossings. With 233,000 researched escape attempts, it is assumed today that several hundred deaths occurred at the Berlin Wall as well as the inner-German border.

People in the GDR took to the streets in 1989 for “freedoms” – for very personal, individual, and social freedoms. The exhibition “Freedoms!” in the House on the Border is dedicated to this. The center of the exhibition deliberately plays with private moments, and with the significance of people’s private living space. This is where the counter-movements began, not only in the GDR, but throughout Eastern Europe, which then contributed to the 1989 protestor filled streets and the fall of dictatorships. This is where people met to discuss the paths to freedom and ultimately bring about the peaceful democratic “Wende” (change). The exhibition is an interactive meeting place and communicative discussion space – for contemporary witnesses who experienced the eventful years 1989/90, but also for future generations for whom dictatorship and the fall of the Wall are already part of history.

The end of The Wall also offered nature a unique opportunity, one that this exhibition “From Death Strip to Lifeline” shows. Nature conservationists quickly recognized the potential of the former border strip after it’s opening, here flora and fauna had conquered an almost untouched habitat over the period of German division. Calcareous grasslands, striking conical mountains, high moors, deciduous forests, and species-rich meadows are just a few of these habitats. Long before minefields and restricted areas cut through the landscape, volcanoes had created the Rhön, this “Land of Open Distances” shaped by nature and cultivated by man.  With the fall of the Iron Curtain began the protection of this special landscape, one which continues to this day. The “Green Belt” stretches along the former patrol road through Germany. The UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Rhön is one of 150 nature reserves along the stretch.

The following exhibitions have been presented in the past as part of regularly offered temporary and traveling exhibitions: