Get us in your inbox

The Berlin Wall in pictures

Time Out’s visual guide to the Cold War’s most enduring monument

Advertising
1. Checkpoint Charlie
© Alexander Herold

1. Checkpoint Charlie

Today a haven of tourist-friendly shops and restaurants (and a fair amount of tat), back in 1961 this was the location for a face-off between US and USSR tanks that could potentially have triggered off World War III. The city’s only crossing for Allied personnel, diplomats and civilians entering and exiting the East, Checkpoint Charlie has remained an iconic attraction, synonymous with the Iron Curtain since its opening in 1961.
2. Niederkirchnerstrasse
© Luise Rausch

2. Niederkirchnerstrasse

The home of one of the last surviving stretches of Wall in central Berlin, Niederkirchnerstrasse’s specimen was the last update to the basic infrastructure, known as ‘Grenzmauer 75’.
Advertising
3. Niederkirchnerstrasse
© Alexander Herold

3. Niederkirchnerstrasse

Chipped, bashed and in cases, with panels knocked out, the Wall sits within a landscape of extraordinarily concentrated Berlin history…
4. Niederkirchnerstrasse
© Alexander Herold

4. Niederkirchnerstrasse

… next to the venerable Martin Gropius Bau museum and gallery and immediately abutting the grisly ‘Topography Of Terror’ open air exhibition, on the site of the former Gestapo headquarters (and subterranean torture chambers).
Advertising
5. East Side Gallery
© Alexander Herold

5. East Side Gallery

Set up in 1990, to preserve a stretch of the Wall that ran alongside the Spree river in Kreuzberg with murals by over 100 artists, the East Side Gallery is one of the largest open-air permanent art exhibits in the world.
6. East Side Gallery
© Alexander Herold

6. East Side Gallery

Today the artworks are almost as anachronistic as the Wall itself and are in danger of vanishing under duress of the elements, lack of resources for restoration and countless scribbles and spray painted messages from tourists, graffiti artists and vandals…
Advertising
7. East Side Gallery
© Alexander Herold

7. East Side Gallery

Some, though, are as vital and vivid as ever.
8. River Spree death strip
© Luise Rausch

8. River Spree death strip

Along Muhlenstrasse in Kreuzberg, the River Spree was designated as part of east Berlin and became a deadly, aquatic death strip patrolled by police boats to prevent daring would-be escapees. The stretch of the wall along the Friedrichshain riverbank, behind the East Side Gallery, is part of the former ‘Hinterland’ (inner) wall. Behind the remnants of the wall, controversial new construction and the O2 World Arena is vible, evidence of a fast-changing Berlin.
Advertising
9. Schlesischer Watchtower
© Alexander Herold

9. Schlesischer Watchtower

Still standing in Schlesischer Park, this former command post between Kreuzberg and Treptow on Puschkinallee was a critical point of surveillance along the border control. Complete with rifle hatches and searchlights, the four-storey structure is 10 metres high and 4.2 by 4.2 metres wide, served as a central command node for 18 watchtowers and countless electronic security devices.
10. Bernauerstrasse

10. Bernauerstrasse

At Bernauerstrasse stand probably the most in-depth and fascinating memorials to the Wall to be found in the city…
Advertising
11. Bernauerstrasse

11. Bernauerstrasse

Steel girders mark the course of the wall down to the Nordbahnhof S-Bahn station and along the way, the Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer complex offers a dynamic and engrossing array of monuments, recreations, historic preservations and documentation of the Wall…
12. Bernauerstrasse

12. Bernauerstrasse

… and in particular, the border crossing that once stood at this site.

Want more Wall?

Recommended
    You may also like
    You may also like
    Advertising