Peter Bochmann Border Guard Collection

Major Peter Bochmann, a commander in the Grenztruppen der Deutsche Demokratische Republik (Border Guard for the German Democratic Republic), was stationed on the eastern side of Checkpoint Charlie for extended periods between 1964 and 1990. He has recorded his career at the Berlin Wall with a thorough and carefully organized collection of primary and secondary literature, training materials, personal documents, and photographs. As well he preserved phones, briefcases, lockers, radios, awards, and even dishware from the guards’ room at the checkpoint. When the Berlin Wall collapsed on November 9, 1989, Major Bochmann was working on the development of a new photo-based facial recognition system. The last instructions for his program stop mid-sentence, marking the moment he stepped outside to check the commotion, and becoming witness to the start of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The museum has been acquiring Major Bochmann’s collection over a number of years, and many of the materials were displayed as part of the exhibition Facing the Wall (2009–17). Adding greater contextual information to these items are Bochmann’s twenty hours of oral history conducted as part of theHistorical Witness Project.

The cataloging and digitization of this collection was made possible by the support of Arcadia – a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.