Marienfelde emergency reception center
The Marienfelde emergency reception center in Berlin-Marienfelde was one of three camps that handled the emergency reception procedure for Germans from the GDR and East Berlin under the Emergency Reception Act . The other two camps were in Gießen and Uelzen-Bohldamm .
History of the emergency room
Since 1948, more and more people moved from the former Soviet occupation zone to the western zones and to West Berlin . For Berlin in particular, this influx was a major problem in view of the catastrophic supply of living space. The emergency room in Kuno-Fischer-Strasse in Berlin-Charlottenburg was opened on January 18, 1950 to take care of her . It was replaced in August 1953 by the newly built central emergency reception center in Marienfelde.
With the adoption of the Emergency Admissions Act in West Berlin with effect from February 4, 1952, the planning of a central federal emergency reception center in the western part of the city slowly got going. From May 1952, the refugee problem for West Berlin worsened dramatically. The GDR border security decision of May 26, 1952 meant that the escape routes across the inner-German border and the border between the GDR and West Berlin were quickly blocked. Only the inner-city sector border between West and East Berlin was relatively uncontrolled. The municipal facilities for receiving the refugees were overcrowded. The then Berlin Senator for Social Affairs Otto Friedrich Bach ( Senate Reuter ), according to his own statements, led a “two-front fight against refugee emergency and Bonn bureaucracy” in dealing with the flow of refugees.
On July 30, 1952, the foundation stone for the Marienfelde emergency reception center was laid. The site on Marienfelder Allee was federal property. The proximity to Tempelhof Airport and the connection to the S-Bahn were decisive factors for the choice of location. The first section of the camp with ten blocks of flats for about 2000 refugees was inaugurated on April 14, 1953. Operations in the camp only began in August 1953 at the height of a wave of refugees following June 17, 1953 . On September 20, 1956, the one millionth refugee was officially admitted to the camp. According to the then Mayor of Berlin Willy Brandt , 16,000 refugees came from the Soviet zone in August 1958 alone, 2,000 more than in the same month last year. Until 1961, the camp was constantly expanded, but was almost always overcrowded.
Suddenly the number of refugees fell to almost zero after August 13, 1961 due to the construction of the inner-city border security systems. Parts of the camp were released for residential use. The eastern part of the camp remained in order to continue to take in refugees and, above all, resettlers from the GDR and later also resettlers from other countries. In 1989 the flow of refugees increased dramatically again. The opportunities to leave the GDR improved; the number of refugees rose. After November 9, 1989 , there was a great rush to the camp in Marienfelde. Factory buildings were rented nearby in order to cope with the flow of refugees. From June 30, 1990, the camp became quieter. In 1993 the last refugees and resettlers left the Marienfelde emergency reception center. After that, the camp was operated as the central reception center of the State of Berlin for emigrants . In summer 2010 it was closed due to the low level of immigration.
In December 2010 the reception center was reactivated and since then it has been run by the International Federation (IB), independent organization for youth, social and educational work. V., used on behalf of the State Office for Health and Social Affairs as a transitional home for refugees and asylum seekers.
In 2020 the building of the former emergency reception center became part of the art project Paste Up History - Marienfelde Goes Street Art by the artist duo Maria Vill and David Mannstein on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of Marienfeld . A photograph of a family who fled the German Democratic Republic and was taken here was attached to the facade .
The memorial
On the initiative of former refugees, employees of the emergency reception center and interested scientists, the memorial center Notaufnahmelager Marienfelde e. V. was founded with the aim of researching, documenting and communicating the history of the emergency reception center and the German-German refugee movement to a broader public. In the same year, the association opened a small presentation on the camp grounds, which provided information about the historical location, the admission procedure as well as the causes and course of escape and departure. In 1998, the Enquete Commission of the German Bundestag classified the Marienfelde emergency reception center as a memorial of national importance.
In April 2005 the exhibition, which had existed since 1993, was replaced by the permanent exhibition “Escape in divided Germany”, which had been completely revised and expanded in terms of content and design. The project was made possible by the financial support of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Foundation for Coming to terms with the SED dictatorship and the German Class Lottery Foundation .
The new exhibition offers a comprehensive and differentiated picture of the German-German refugee movement on around 450 m² with over 900 exhibits and numerous eyewitness reports and thus illuminates a central aspect of the German division and its effects. Both sides of the border are examined and shown in their relationship to one another: The motives that led people to leave the GDR illustrate the access of the dictatorial state to the everyday life of the individual; The further course of life after the escape - from the emergency admission procedure to the successful (or failed) integration - illustrates the opportunities and problems in the West and the importance that the refugees from the GDR had for Federal Republican politics and society.
In addition to the permanent exhibition, the memorial site regularly shows special exhibitions and is working on the continuous expansion of its collection. The main focus of the collection is the material tradition of the place and the historical testimonies of contemporary witnesses, which provide information about the experiences of persecution in the GDR as well as about the reception and integration experiences in the Federal Republic. In addition, the memorial has been building an archive of contemporary witnesses since 1996, which already contains over a hundred audio and video interviews with former GDR refugees and emigrants.
In October 2005, Walter Momper, the President of the House of Representatives at the time, unveiled a memorial with a suitcase in memory of the refugees from the East. On September 11, 2008, the Berlin House of Representatives decided to merge the Marienfelde emergency reception center and the Berlin Wall Memorial in the state-owned Berlin Wall Foundation on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 2008 .
See also
- Central Reception Home Röntgen - transit camp for refugees from the GDR who want to return.
literature
- Remembrance Center Notaufnahmelager Marienfelde e. V. (Ed.): 1953–2003: 50 years of the Marienfelde emergency reception center .
- Bettina Effner, Helge Heidemeyer (ed.): Escape in divided Germany. be.bra, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89809-065-5 .
- Helge Heidemeyer : Flight and Immigration from the Soviet Zone / GDR 1945 / 1949–1961. The refugee policy of the Federal Republic up to the construction of the Berlin Wall. Droste, Düsseldorf 1994. ISBN 3-7700-5176-9 .
- Günter Köhler: Emergency room. Berlin 1991.
- Damian van Melis, Henrik Bispinck (eds.): "Republic flight". Escape and emigration from the Soviet Zone / GDR 1945 to 1961. Munich 2006.
- Elke Kimmel: The emergency admission procedure. In: Germany Archive , Volume 2006, No. 6, pp. 1023-1032.
- Charlotte Oesterreich: The situation in the refugee camps for GDR immigrants in the 1950s and 1960s. “The ones from the Mau Mau settlement”. Publishing house Dr. Kovač, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8300-3498-8 .
- Elke Kimmel: "... he couldn't be expected to stay longer in the SBZ". GDR refugees in the Marienfelde emergency reception center . Edited by the Marienfelde emergency reception center memorial. Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-940938-36-7 ( publisher information ).
- Clemens Niedenthal: Close-up - Photographed everyday life in West Berlin refugee camps . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86153-621-5 .
- Finally being able to say what you really think . In: Berliner Morgenpost , July 14, 1961; HNA Regiowiki
Web links
- Website of the Marienfelde emergency reception center memorial
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans-Hermann Hertle, Konrad Hugo Jarausch, Christoph Klessmann: Building the Wall and Falling the Wall: Causes, Course, Effects . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2002. ISBN 978-3-86153-264-4 , p. 287
- ^ Before the Wall was built: Willy Brandt on refugees from the GDR. In: Original speech by Willy Brandt to the Berlin Senate on September 4, 1958. SWR2 archive radio: Fluchtpunkt Deutschland, December 22, 2015, accessed on October 16, 2017 .
Coordinates: 52 ° 25 ′ 13 ″ N , 13 ° 22 ′ 0 ″ E