Guided tours in Berlin and Potsdam
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TOUR ALONG THE FORMER BERLIN WALL
Walking tour along the former wall border in the city center of Berlin including remaining pieces of the Berlin Wall.
Tour information
The Wall is probably Berlin’s most famous building. Pieces of it remain only in a few places. The official Wall Memorial with a reconstructed “Death Strip” at Bernauer Strasse is the ideal place to understand the absurd and tragic situation of Berliners on both sides of the Wall. In this street dramatic escape attempts took place and a church was detonated in the border zone. A ride on a former ghost train line and a visit to the “Palace of Tears” are also part of the tour. The tour ends at Checkpoint Charlie, a hotspot of the Cold War and site of the dramatic tank confrontation in 1961 between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Tour description
The tour starts at the Wall Memorial at Bernauer Strasse where the facades of houses on the southern side of the street became part of the fortifications when the border was closed in 1961. People jumped out of the windows to reach the other side of the street in the West and several people died during escape attempts. You will see the site of tunnel 57 which was named after the number of persons that escaped through it and the place where a church was blown up in 1985. The so-called „Death Strip“ between the two walls that defined the border zone has been partly reconstructed including an old watchtower and a memorial to all those who died at the Wall. From there we will use a so-called “Ghost Train Line” where the train did not stop at stations in East Berlin because the trains belonged to West Berlin’s public transportation system. It takes us to Friedrichstrasse where the former checkpoint has been turned into a museum. Finally, we will reach Checkpoint Charlie where US soldiers passed the border to visit East Berlin. In 1961 the fate of mankind was hanging on a bare thread when the US and Soviet tanks stood opposite each other at Checkpoint Charlie threatening to open fire.
During the tour you will see:
Documentation Center and Visitor Center of the Wall Memorial
Wall Memorial at Bernauer Strasse
Sites of escape tunnels
Chapel of Reconciliation, built from pieces of the detonated Reconciliation Church
Ruins of torn-down houses in the former death strip
Exhibition on “ghost train stations”
Rides on former “ghost train lines”
“Palace of Tears“, former checkpoint at train station Friedrichstrasse
Checkpoint Charlie, symbol of the Cold War