VILLA SCHOENINGEN
Permanent Exhibition "Spione, Mauer, Kinderwochenheim"
Internet:
On the 20th anniversary of German unification, on October 3, 2009, Villa Schoeningen opened the new permanent exhibition "Spione, Mauer, Kinderwochenheim". The CEO of the Axel Springer AG, Dr. Mathias Doepfner, and Leonard Fischer, the co-CEO of RHJ International, purchased Villa Schoeningen in 2007. To save it from demolition and after intensive renovation the building was opened as a museum dedicated to history, art and liberty.
"The history of Villa Schoeningen is interlaced in special and manifold ways with the history of our country. As a witness in stone, the Villa stands in a special place, a few meters to the west of the so called Glienicker Bridge. In the Cold War, this bridge, historically a link between the capital Berlin and the city of Potsdam, was a place of separation and exchange for the great power blocks. Now it has become a historical symbol for German separation and unification, for the lack of freedom and for regained liberty."
Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel
(remarks at the opening of Villa Schoeningen)
