One of the last remaining guard towers of the Berlin Wall
Inside the guard tower, visitors can climb up a few days of the year
Dividing Germany’s capital city, Berlin, for nearly three decades, the Berlin Wall divided not only land, but a people between two contrasting ideologies. Is it East versus West, or Regan versus Gorbachev? Berlin was at the battlefronts of the Cold War, a city a spies, and a city of dreams.
“Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall!” ~ John F. Kennedy
Mockup of the death strip in Bernauer Straße
When the Berlin wall finally fell in 1990, Berlin’s division was over and the last geographical vestige of WWII had been reunited to great elation. Although the Soviet Union has collapsed and the Cold War was over, signs of Berlin’s divisive past still linger on today. There are numerous sections of the Berlin Wall scattered all over the city (and the world), as well as monuments to spycraft such as the NSA’s Field Station Berlin on Teufelsberg.
Berlin Wall at Potsdamer Platz
Berlin Wall at Leipziger Platz
My favorite thing to do at Bernauer Straße is to go around to the inner wall, jump, and scale it (cover photo). Don’t get to the other side though or Stalin’s lawn will pierce through every part of your body…and most likely kill you. Bernauer Straße isn’t my favorite bit of wall, Warschauer Straße possibly has the longest and best decorated section of the outer wall with the famous Henry Kissinger mural. I highly recommend covering that 2km stretch of wall by scooter or bicycle, you can just park on the side of the mural you want to take a picture of. If you want to see the most well-preserved section of the wall, head to the Berlin Wall exhibition center that placed a section of wall inside one of the government buildings in the Band des Bundes, the center is in the Marie Elisabeth Lüders Haus.
Wall by Bernauer Straße in its original location
There will be shops that sell you pieces of the Berlin Wall. I do have my doubts over wheter or not those are the pieces of the Berlin Wall you imagine them to be. Sure, there was over 80km of outer and inner wall so there’s plenty to go around, but you may not be getting parts of the beautifully graffitied outer wall. It could be a piece of the dreary inner wall that never saw the west or a piece of the footing from the wall, which isn’t even vertical. I’d be careful.
