Berlin of the Cold War era Private Walking Tour

Berlin was a divided city for nearly thirty years – a city with a wall running through its very heart. From 13 August 1961 until 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall divided the city into East and West Berlin. Today, all across the city you can find traces of the Wall, its remains and memorial sites – the East Side Gallery, the Berlin Wall Memorial in Bernauer Strasse, the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial, a former Stasi remand prison, and the green Mauerpark.

In the heart of Germany’s capital city, the Berlin Wall Memorial is the central memorial site recalling German division. Located at a site fraught with history on Bernauer Strasse, it extends along 1.4 kilometers of the former border strip. The construction of the Wall put a violent end to everyday life on Bernauer Strasse, leaving traces that are still visible today. The only section of the Berlin Wall to be preserved in its full depth, allowing visitors to see the various elements of the border strip as it looked at the end of the 1980s, stands on the grounds of the Berlin Wall Memorial.

The Berlin Wall fell on the evening of the 9th November. The border point Bornholmer Strasse was the first which yielded to the pressure of the crowd gathered there. Tens of thousands of citizens of the GDR crossed the Böse bridge into West Berlin passing over the state border which also stood for the communist system.

Checkpoint Charlie was the setting for many thrillers and spy novels, from James Bond in Octopussy to The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Located on the corner of Friedrichstraße and Zimmerstraße, it is a reminder of the former border crossing, the Cold War and the partition of Berlin. The barrier and checkpoint booth, the flag and the sandbags are all based on the original site – and are a popular subject for photos.

Parting tears. This is what the partition of Germany meant for many Berliners and their personal stories can be found in the Tränenpalast. Exiting the GDR. Checking in in the hall at Friedrichstraße railway station. Luggage and passport control. It sounds so rational and bureaucratic but means much more: leaving friends and family, tearful goodbyes – which is how the Tränenpalast acquired its nickname. Immediately after the construction of the Berlin Wall, the GDR erected the check-in hall at Friedrichstraße railway station in 1962. It was used for passengers crossing from East to West Berlin. The glass and steel pavilion was very much in keeping with the architecture of the era. Only passengers who wished to travel to West Berlin on the S-Bahn or U-Bahn could access the Tränenpalast. Policemen checked passports and visas, customs officers checked luggage and finally passports were checked thoroughly once more before onward travel was permitted.