The text, picture, and video components of the exhibit emphasized this idea that the wall was built to trap the people of East Berlin in a horrible oppressive world. As I walked through and read the excerpts they described the horrid conditions of East Berlin, the secretive and repressive police, and emphasized how many people had given their lives to try and cross into West Berlin. There even was a section completely devoted to the ways in which citizens of East Berlin would try to cross over the wall. Other portions described how the wall split families due to their location when the wall was built.
While people did die trying to cross the wall and some families were split, the exhibit was entirely too sensational. Instead of offering any viewpoint of East Berlin from those who chose to stay, they only offered the viewpoint of the West. The exhibit failed to mention that the reason many stayed in the East was due to the free childcare, relative abundance of employment, and the large social safety net that was all provided by the government. Instead it took the classic American “socialism is evil” viewpoint and offered nothing that would possibly conflict with that idea. The video only showed news from the West and interviews with those who believed that the wall brought nothing but pain and trouble to Berlin.