Berlin Spy Museum

Before its construction, many sites for the Berlin Spy Museum were considered such as the famous Hackeschen Höfe, the Forum Museumsinsel (also known as Museum Island) and the Prinzessinnenpalais Unter den Linden. Located on the previous division between East and West Berlin, the museum is positioned in a popular spot, surrounded by other tourist destinations like the Martin-Gropius-Bau, the Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz, the Bundesrat of Germany, Topography of Terrors and the Kulturforum with the Philharmonie and Neuer Nationalgalerie. Following renovations, the museum opened on 19 September 2015, 25 years after the end of the Cold War. Shortly after the museums opening, the business encountered some financial issues with its innovative funding model, resulting in its temporary closure. After some careful planning to improve the financial concept of the museum, it reopened on 29 July 2016 as the "German Spy Museum". During his research Günther had an unexpected encounter with the East German Stasi under Communism which inspired him to discover more about the pre-history of spies. which was once at the city of Berlin's centre. The museum creates an educational experience for visitors and aims to demonstrate an objective, non-biased perspective of espionage throughout history. == Exhibitions ==

The main topics of the exhibitions within the museum are: • The History of Espionage from Ancient times until the Present Age • World War I • World War II • Cryptology, Morse, Radio • Cold War (Secret services in East and West Germany) • Spy Gear • Spy Training • Listening Devices • Spy Cameras • Animals Used as Spies e.g. pigeons • Conspiracy Theories and Espionage (RAF-Stasi Connection / The Case Uwe Barschel) • Glienicke Bridge (Spy exchanges) • Secret Services and Poison • 007 – Espionage in Movies • Double Agents • Secret Service Operations • Espionage in Present and Future The museum was designed to educate its visitors through its hands-on, interactive exhibits in the 3.000 m2 (32.000 sq ft) exhibition space. The exhibitions within the museum were designed by Bänfer Kartenbeck. Garamantis and Arts Electronica companies helped create and conceive the leading edge and high-tech multimedia exhibits and interactive models in the museum. The exhibits are positioned in chronological order, creating a physical timeline that visitors can walk through, beginning with secret scriptures from antiquity and ending with the recent NSA debate. The entrance to the museum has security cameras peering down on the visitors, setting the scene for the entire facility as substantive focus of the exhibition is on data acquisition in the Internet Age. which are used in the Berlin Spy Museum. The business aims to create leading edge technology in order to modernise museums in the digital age. Creating digital and interactive technology in museums also enhances their prestige and allows them to appeal to a wider audience. Garamantis invented all the interactive technologies and a software system for the Berlin Spy Museum, in collaboration with designs from arts electronica. The high-tech designs are displayed on 200 screens throughout the museum. The museum contains a large display-wall called the "Spy Watch" that plays more than 150 videos simultaneously As curator of the museum, Franz-Michael Günther decision to collaborate with Garamantis to create the museum allowed his complex vision to be created. Günther said "Garamantis's ideas and networks, like the interactive display cases, have opened up new and innovative ways of presentation for our exhibition concept" The notion of spying involves "entering an opponent's zone under false pretences to get information". In 1945, the city of Berlin was split between the NATO powers and the USSR, making it a frontier for the Cold War and eventually becoming known as the international capital of espionage. Owing to the continuous growth of arsenal between the two superpowers during the Cold War, there was an aim to move towards a more peaceful and secure world. The Cold War was not a traditional war in the sense of guns and weapons. It used spies and espionage as a method of "indirect war". By the 1950s the Stasi had developed a huge network of 274,000 employed spies and agents. Berlin in the Cold War Berlin was considered "the most valuable base in the world for espionage against the Soviet Bloc until the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961". Half of the British Secret Intelligence Service (M16) total strength was concentrated in Berlin at the end of the 1950s. (Van Tonder 2017). In response to this, the US flew cargo plans with resources over the Berlin Wall to sustain the city. == Artifacts ==

props Original artifacts have been collected over the years and realistic replicas have been created to expose visitors to methods and tactics used by spies and secret services throughout history. The artefacts were sourced by the curators and historians of the museum, with many of the replicas being collected form the props used in James Bond films. Most of the machines have been destroyed, but one of the remaining Fialkas is on display at the Berlin Spy Museum. The Fialka encrypts and decodes messages written in Cyrillic onto paper. The cipher machine is similar to the Enigma device that was used to protect commercial, diplomatic and military communication during World War II. However, following further research it was discovered that Markov was not killed via the ‘Bulgarian umbrella’ but the poison was injected into him via a smaller murder weapon. A reconstruction of this killer umbrella is displayed at the Berlin Spy Museum. This event caused a climax in the secret intelligence operations during the Cold War, with the ‘Bulgarian Umbrella’ turning into a "synonym for cold-blooded, well-organized, and deadly operations, particularly those associated with socialist state security services". smells through collecting their odours on materials such as clothing and storing them in air-tight jars. The Stasi eventually built an extensive scent archives in the belief that individual's odours could be preserved and that trained canine noses could detect them. The German cipher machine was predominantly used throughout World War II to encrypt communications. Unknown to the Germans, the allies were able to decrypt and read the messages, but they continued to update and improve the Enigma machine in the belief that it would be more secure. One of the models of the Enigma machine, initially used by the German military, can be viewed in the museum. ==References==