Abstract
About half of the artifacts, including many of the most interesting and unusual, are from the German Democratic Republic: the border guards' logbook for November 9, 1989, the day the Wall was breached; private papers from Communist party chief Erich Honecker, and tools of the spy trade such as listening devices from Stasi, the East German secret service. The museum employs conservation specialists whose work is guided by the ideas of a consultant provided through an NEH preservation grant, and its volunteer "scouts" across Eastern Europe rummage through attics and flea markets for new acquisitions, which are kept in the museum's climate-controlled storage facility in Berlin.