By the time the Berlin Wall was built on August 13, 1961, nearly 3 million people had already left the GDR and resettled in the Federal Republic. After the inner-German border was closed in 1952, most of them took the route through the “loophole” of West Berlin. Although there were security checks there, it was still possible to cross the border.

The Nieske family from Mecklenburg were among the many GDR refugees who fled via West Berlin in the 1950s. Christel Nieske, her husband Hans Nieske and their two-year-old son arrived in Berlin separately in February 1953. That was the year that the reception center in Berlin-Marienfelde opened, becoming the first and central point of contact for GDR refugees arriving in the West.

Seventy years after the Nieske family’s escape, we are presenting a small selection of family keepsakes from the collection of the Berlin Wall Foundation to tell the story of this family’s flight from East to West. In this way, we also commemorate the 70th anniversary of the reception center, which played a central role in the exodus movement in divided Germany and continues to be a site of diverse migration today.