The GDR border station museum Probstzella is located halfway between Berlin and Munich in the old station building (built in 1885). The station Probstzella was between 1949 and 1990 a GDR border station. Nearly twenty million travelers were controlled, humiliated and harassed by passport inspectors and publicans.
The exhibition is divided into five theme rooms: Control Courses - Power Areas - Border Passages - Waiting Room GDR - Walking / Staying
The exhibition clarifies on the denied entry into the GDR in the GDR. About the harassing control regime at the border. About the nature of the GDR's western border as a wall of a prison state. It shows inside views of the power and the powerlessness of the ruled. She tells of failed and successful escape attempts via the border station Probstzella. It illustrates the station history from 1945 to 1990. You can see original exhibits, documents and photos as well as film and audio clips from the archives of the perpetrators.
"Action vermin - Forced evictions at the GDR border in the area Probstzella 1952 and 1961", is the name of the exhibition on the upper floor of the museum (designed by Roman Grafe).
In the immediate vicinity of the museum there are other exhibitions on the GDR's western border: In the Hopfsberg border tower the exhibition "Perpetrators, Victims, Followers". In the Heimatmuseum Gräfenthal the exhibition "Included, locked. The border through Germany - 1945 to 1990 ". Finally, the exhibition "From the Death Strip to the Green Belt" in the Bauhaus Hotel "House of the People" Probstzella (diagonally opposite the station). There is also the Franz Itting Museum.
The GDR border station museum Probstzella was created in the autumn of 2010. The exhibition was commissioned by the history workshop Jena by the author and filmmaker Roman Grafe (inter alia "The border through Germany", Siedler 2002). It helped students and teachers of the Heinrich-Böll-Gymnasium Saalfeld and citizens of Probstzella and Ludwigsstadt and many others. The foundation for the work-up of the SED dictatorship as well as the Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Hessen-Thüringen financially supported the creation of the exhibition. The museum is supported by volunteer work and the community Probstzella, entrance fees and donations.
Admission: 4 euros (concessions: 2 euros, group price: 3 euros / person)
Opening hours: Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 1pm to 4pm. Additionally by appointment.