From 1961 to 1990, Western visitors wishing to spend a day in East Berlin had to show their credentials at Checkpoint Charlie, an American checkpoint. In 2001, a replica of this checkpoint was installed on the site itself, preceded by the famous sign: “You are leaving the American sector”. This Cold War memorial is the work of Rainer Hildebrandt (1914-2004), who founded and directed the nearby West German Haus am Checkpoint Charlie Museum.
Established in 1963 near Checkpoint Charlie, in a building adjoining the Wall, the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie Museum continues to preserve the memory of the tragedies associated with the Wall’s existence. It traces the attempts of GDR citizens to cross over to the West, using objects, photos, videos and models. You’ll discover cars used to secretly cross the border and other stratagems. For example, a woman escapes from East Berlin hidden in a huge loudspeaker. In 1979, two families of four crossed the border in a hot-air balloon, the largest ever made by hand.
Many objects are dedicated to those who perished trying to cross the border, even if they were not fired upon by all the East German soldiers. A photo from the collection shows a banner, installed in 1971 in West Berlin, which thanks “the many GDR border guards who did not and will not shoot fugitives”.
Nearby, the Asisi Panometer is a huge cylindrical steel rotunda recreating the 360° view from both sides of the wall in the 1980s. The details are astonishingly realistic: children playing near graffiti artists and drunks massed around a Currywurst stand, while sentries patrol death row. Nearby, the Black Box deals with the Cold War and gives a foretaste of the future museum to be built on the site in the coming years.
Around midnight on August 12, 1961, People’s Army units stationed in Soviet-occupied East Berlin went on the alert. The very next day, they erected a barbed-wire fence and dug anti-tank ditches along the 155 km border with West Berlin. Subway and train links between the two halves of the city were interrupted.
The birth of the GDR led to a steady flight of East German citizens to the West. In the first quarter of 1961 alone, almost 100,000 of them moved to the West. This exodus jeopardized the country’s economy. When Walter Ulbricht, first secretary of the SED, declared in June that “no one has any intention of building a wall”, he was lying: with the agreement of the other member countries of the Warsaw Pact, the GDR had decided to settle the “Berlin problem” by placing a physical obstacle in its way.
On the morning of August 13, hundreds of East Berliners seized their last chance to cross into the West. But by the end of the day, the army had already erected brick walls, dug new ditches and forcibly evicted the inhabitants from their homes on the border. Of the 81 existing checkpoints, 69 are closed. Until 1963, almost no one will be allowed to cross in either direction.
The “Anti-Fascist Protection Wall” is consolidated over the years. In 1975, a 43 km-long concrete screen separated the two halves of the city. Made of prefabricated slabs each weighing 2.75 t, it reached heights of 3.5 m to 4 m, crossing buildings and cutting streets in two.
A no-man’s-land, the “Ribbon of Death”, bordered by a ditch and a runway reserved for military vehicles. The remaining 112 km of border between Brandenburg and West Berlin were closed with fortified fences, and the GDR installed 300 watchtowers equipped with watchtowers and machine guns. This system was later reinforced with guard dog runs, detectors and, later, automatic firing systems. Finally, an inner fence was added on the east side.
The Berlin Wall claimed its first victim on August 24, 1961: Günter Litfin. The last, Chris Gueffroy, died on February 5, 1989. Of the 5000 or so people who attempted to cross the Wall, over 3000 were arrested, 80 died and 115 were injured.
On November 10, 1989, Berliners began tearing down the Wall. By 1991, almost nothing remained. Of the few sections still standing, the longest, known as the East Side Gallery, runs along the Spree. The other, smaller remnants stand at the junction of Niederkirchnerstrasse and Wilhelmstrasse, and along Bermauer Strasse, north of Mitte.
Watchtowers remain, including those at Kieler Strasse, Erna-Berger Strasse (near Postdaler Platz) and Am Schlesischen Busch. Various monuments pay tribute to the victims, near Brandeburger Tor, Tiergarten, and on the Spree, north of the Reichstag.
Checkpoint Charlie border crossing
You are leaving the American sector
Commemorative plaque donated by Brezhnev
Where concrete blocks once circled West Berlin, the Berlin Mauerweg (Wall Road) has become a 160 km-long pedestrian and cycle path. A large proportion of these paved routes run along the footpaths formerly patrolled by border guards. The route is divided into 14 pedestrian and cycling sections, accessible by public transport (if it’s possible to travel with your bike on buses and trains, please enquire beforehand). Photos, documents and audio recordings evoke the events of the Wall. The route, which alternates between built-up areas and rural landscapes, is well signposted. Biographies posted along the way portray the fugitives who perished near the Wall.
Berlin on Bike organizes an excellent 4-hour, 14 km tour, including stops at border crossings, abandoned railway stations and one of the last remaining observation towers. Tours depart from Prenzlauer Berg. Advance booking is recommended.
25 September 2016
Listed as a World Heritage Site since 1999, Museum Island comprises five museums occupying the northern tip of an island on the River Spree in the heart of Berlin: the Bode Museum, the Pergamon Museum, the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum and the Alte Nationalgalerie.
23 June 2018
Peaceful countryside, battlefield sites, natural sights and, above all, an incomparable succession of historic towns: the Romantische Strasse, which stretches 350 km from Würzburg in the Main valley to Füssen in the Alps, is Germany’s most popular tourist route.
6 May 2018
Füssen is the romantic soul of Bavaria, a fairytale land of lakes, rolling hills and majestic mountains. Art and culture await you in the ancient city of Füssen and the nearby royal castles, and you’ll be bewitched by the landscapes of this fascinating world.
