Peter Bochmann Border Guard Collection

Major Peter Bochmann (b. 1940) was a career officer with the East German Border Guards, who spent most of his active career at the border crossing installation (“Grenzübergangsstelle”) Friedrich/Zimmerstraße directly opposite the Allied “Checkpoint Charlie” in Berlin.

With an amateur historian’s eye, Bochmann saved photographs and newspaper documentation of operations at the border, especially during the “Wende” year of 1990 as duties at the checkpoint wound down. The Museum holds a vast array of documents and material objects related to his role as a border guard. He 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. In addition, he preserved phones, briefcases, lockers, radios, awards, and even dishware from the guards’ room at the Checkpoint. Earlier, he had worked closely with developing and refining the techniques and procedures of personal identification in use by the passport control division (PKE).  Maj. Bochmann hoped that the methods developed at the border might find some commercial application after Reunification.

 Major Bochmann’s collections were featured in the exhibitions: Facing the Wall (2008-2017), surveillance-themed permanent collection displays (2017-2024), and the upcoming PST exhibition, Surveillance Countersurveillance (Fall 2024 – Spring 2025). Additionally, Bochmann provided twenty hours of oral history which was conducted as part of the Historical Witness Project.

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.