Berlin Wall Trail - From Nordbahnhof to Potsdamer Platz

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Link zeigt: Orte-Markierungen Former border crossings

Link zeigt: Orte-Markierungen Museums and exhibitions

Link zeigt: Orte-Markierungen Memorials

Link zeigt: Orte-Markierungen Artistic markers

Link zeigt: Orte-Markierungen Memorial sites for the victims of the Berlin Wall

Link zeigt: Orte-Markierungen Commemorative sites

Link zeigt: Orte-Markierungen Remains of the Wall

Link zeigt: Orte-Markierungen Historical information

Link zeigt: Orte-Markierungen Places of interest

Link zeigt: Orte-Markierungen Other key sites

Enlarge photo: Park am Nordbahnhof

Park at Nordbahnhof

Image: SenStadt/Ulrich Reinheckel

This seven-kilometer route starts at the Nordbahnhof S-Bahn station on the former border to West Berlin. The S-Bahn station was shut down after Berlin was divided and became one of the city’s “ghost stations.” Underground S-Bahn trains ran from southern West Berlin to the north without stopping; border guards patrolled the dimly lit platforms. A visit to the exhibition “Grenz- und Geisterbahnhöfe im geteilten Berlin” in the Nordbahnhof station on Gartenstrasse will give you a good impression of what these stations were like.

Enlarge photo: Friedhof der St.-Hedwig-Gemeinde

St. Hedwig cemetery

Image: SenStadt/Guggenthaler

The extensive grounds of the Nordbahnhof station were transformed into a section of the border strip starting in 1961. Remaining sections of the Wall have been integrated into the park grounds created here. The train station wall on Gartenstrasse served as part of the outer wall (“Vorderlandmauer”). It was continued as a concrete wall along Liesenstrasse, on the grounds of the St. Hedwig cemetery, and can still be seen in its original condition at the corner of Gartenstrasse. You can still see noticeable traces of the GDR border regime in the cemetery itself. Some of the graves were destroyed in the process of expanding the border strip, and the cemetery could only be reached from the rear, through an apartment house on Wöhlertstrasse.

Enlarge photo: Grenzübergang Chausseestraße Ecke Liesenstraße 1970

Former border crossing at Chausseestrasse 1970

Image: Landesarchiv/D. Lohse

At the end of Liesenstrasse you pass the former Chausseestrasse border crossing, which you can read about on a Berlin Wall History Mile info board. Karla Sachse’s artwork “Kaninchenfeld” (Rabbit Field) accentuates the former checkpoint. Boyenstrasse takes you to the Spandauer Schifffahrtskanal, a canal that marked the border to West Berlin. Here you will find the Günter Litfin memorial in an old watchtower used by GDR border guards.

Enlarge photo: Grenzübergang Invalidenstraße

Former border crossing at Invalidenstrasse

Image: Landesarchiv Berlin 0078732/Johann Willa

Passing the cemetery Invalidenfriedhof, which was heavily damaged by the construction of the border strip, you arrive at the former Invalidenstrasse border crossing. Two History Mile info boards here tell the story of a failed escape attempt at this border crossing and of Günter Litfin, who was the first fugitive to be shot dead at the Berlin Wall. He was killed by GDR transport police not far from the bridge at the harbor Humboldthafen.

Enlarge photo: Weiße Kreuze am Spreeufer

“Weisse Kreuze” memorial

Image: Senatskanzlei

In the new government district built between the bridge Sandkrugbrücke and Brandenburg Gate you can visit three memorial sites dedicated to the victims of the Berlin Wall and built at different times: the “Parlament der Bäume” (Parliament of Trees) created by the artist Ben Wargin after the fall of the Wall out of original parts of the inner wall; the wall memorial at the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus, which continues the “Parliament der Bäume” in the Bundestag library; and the memorial “Weisse Kreuze” (White Crosses), first set up in 1971 on the bank of the Spree River by citizens of West Berlin on the tenth anniversary of the building of the Wall.

Enlarge photo: Tränenpalast

“Tränenpalast” (Palace of Tears)

Image: Stiftung Haus der Geschichte / Axel Thünker

Here you can make a short trip along the southern bank of the Spree River to the “Tränenpalast” (Palace of Tears), a pavilion once used by the GDR for border clearance at the Friedrichstrasse train station. On the way there, you’ll also pass a former GDR waterway checkpoint underneath the bridge Marschallbrücke. At the Tränenpalast, which has been classified as a historical monument, the foundation Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland has set up a permanent exhibition on “Teilung und Grenze im Alltag der Deutschen” (Division and the border in everyday life in Germany).

Enlarge photo: Mauer an der Ebertstraße; Mauerabschnitt zwischen Reichstagsgebäude und Brandenburger Tor; 2.1.1990

Between the Reichstag building and Brandenburg Gate, January 1990

Image: Landesarchiv/Edmund Kasperski

Back on the Wall Trail and passing the Reichstag building, which stood right next to the Wall on the West Berlin side, you will come to Brandenburg Gate. Berlin Wall History Mile info boards show you how this Berlin landmark once stood in the middle of the border strip, as well as some of the world-famous images associated with the peaceful fall of the Wall.

In the Brandenburger Tor U-Bahn station (U55) at Pariser Platz, the Berlin Wall Information Center at Brandenburg Gate provides an overview of all the Berlin Wall memorial sites in Berlin and of the history of Berlin’s most famous landmark, Brandenburg Gate, as the symbol of both German division and the joy of reunification. This last stop on the Berlin Wall Trail is just a few minutes away from the Potsdamer Platz subway and S-Bahn station.

  • About the route: This route through the city center first takes you from the Nordbahnhof station along the former border fortifications via Gartenstrasse and Liesenstrasse to the end of Boyenstrasse. The Wall Trail turns to the south here onto Scharnhorststrasse and brings you via Kieler Strasse to the Spandauer Schifffahrtskanal, which it follows to the bridge Sandkrugbrücke. Via Alexanderufer, Kapelleufer, Schiffbauerdamm, and Ebertstrasse, the trail then follows the former course of the Wall to Potsdamer Platz. Here, too, you should plan on enough time to visit the many memorials and sights along the way.

Sights along the route

Neue Synagoge

Image: Berlin Partner GmbH / FTB-Webefotografie

New Synagogue

The New Synagogue (Neue Synagoge), built from 1859 to 1866 to a Moorish-Byzantine design by Eduard Knoblauch and Friedrich August Stüler, was once Germany’s largest house of prayer. New Synagogue

Hamburger Bahnhof

Image: Claudio Divizia - Fotolia.com

Hamburger Bahnhof

As early as 1884, this train station was unable meet the demands of modern railway traffic, and was converted to a transportation museum at the beginning of the 20th century. Hamburger Bahnhof

Sinkende Mauer Invalidenpark

Image: SenStadt/Jutta Krenz

“Sinkende Mauer”

The Invalidenpark, partly new and partly restored from 1996 to 1998, is home to Christophe Girot’s fountain installation “Sinkende Mauer” (Sinking Wall): a slanted wall you can walk on rises up out of a pool of water, and water runs down it in the summer months. “Sinkende Mauer”

Museum für Naturkunde

Image: AndreasJ - Fotolia.com

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum (Naturkundemuseum), built from 1883 to 1889 by August Tiede, boasts a collection of more than 25 million zoological, paleontological, mineralogical, and geological objects. Natural History Museum

Campus Charité Mitte

Image: Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Charité Campus Mitte

The Charité, built in 1710 as a plague hospital, evolved into an outstanding medical research and teaching institution in the 19th century. Many of its different buildings were erected from 1897 to 1917, while its 21-story high-rise was opened to patients in 1981. Charité Campus Mitte

#45139349 - Berlin Hauptbahnhof

Image: kameraauge - fotolia.com

Hauptbahnhof

After ten years of construction, Europe’s largest crossing station (architects: von Gerkan, Marg and Partners) opened in 2006. Hauptbahnhof

Deutsches Theater

Image: Bezirksamt Mitte

Deutsches Theater

Built from 1849 to 1850 by Eduard Titz and originally called the “Friedrich-Wilhelmstädtisches Theater,” it has been known as the Deutsches Theater since 1883. Deutsches Theater

Bundeskanzleramt

Image: Alex Arocas - Fotolia.com

Federal Chancellery

The Federal Chancellery (Bundeskanzleramt), designed by Axel Schultes and Charlotte Frank and completed in 2001, lies right in the middle of the meander of the Spree. Federal Chancellery

Sowjetisches Ehrenmal (Mitte)

Image: Wolfgang Bittner LDA

Soviet Memorial in the Tiergarten

This Soviet memorial (Sowjetisches Ehrenmal) designed by Lev Kerbel was officially unveiled in November 1945. Buried here are 2,500 Soviet soldiers who died in the fight to take Berlin; their military units are inscribed on columns. Soviet Memorial in the Tiergarten

Reichstag von außen

Image: Marcito / Fotolia.com

Reichstag Building – German Bundestag

The seat of the German Bundestag is the Reichstag building built by Paul Wallot from 1884 to 1894. It was gutted and remodeled according to plans by Sir Norman Foster from 1994 to 1999; today it is a modern parliament building. Reichstag Building – German Bundestag

Holocaust-Mahnmal in Berlin

Image: hindenberg / Fotolia.com

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas) honors the memory of the six million Jewish victims of German National Socialist persecution. Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Kulturforum

Image: © Thomas Röske - Fotolia.com

Philharmonie and Kammermusiksaal

The Philharmonie (1960–1963) is considered one of Hans Scharoun’s major works and a classic example of his “organic architecture”: in the center of the concert hall stands the orchestra podium, surrounded by terraced rows of seating for an audience of 2,200. Philharmonie and Kammermusiksaal

Neue Nationalgalerie

Image: Berlin Partner GmbH / Fritsch Foto

New National Gallery

The New National Gallery (Neue Nationalgalerie) (1965–1968) is the only museum ever built by the architect Mies van der Rohe. A “floating” roof hovers above a light-filled, austere hall of glass and steel. The row of exhibition rooms are located in the basement, which itself is encased in granite. . New National Gallery

Kulturforum

Image: Thomas Röske - Fotolia.com

Picture Gallery

The Picture Gallery (Gemäldegalerie), designed by Hilmer & Sattler, was opened in 1998 and owes its architectural appeal to the expressionist glass roof above the entrance area and a huge hall with three naves. Wrapped around this hall is a double row of 53 exhibition rooms lit evenly from above. Picture Gallery

Staatsbibliothek Berlin - Haus Potsdamer Straße

Image: Da flow

State Library

The State Library (Staatsbibliothek), built from 1967 to 1978 according to plans by Hans Scharoun, was intended to block off West Berlin’s Kulturforum from the “death strip” and the Wall. State Library

Sony-Center

Image: Berlin Partner GmbH / Fritsch Foto

Sony-Center

Along with other striking buildings, Potsdamer Platz’s Sony Center was built under the overall control of the American architect Helmut Jahn starting in 1996. Sony-Center

Fahrradfahrer am Brandenburger Tor

Image: robepco - Fotolia.com

Brandenburg Gate

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin’s main landmark and former gate to the city, was located right behind the border inside the Soviet sector during the years of division. More information

Akademie der Künste

Image: Wolfgang Bittner LDA

Academy of Arts

Reunited since 1993, the Academy of Arts (Akademie der Künste) has returned to its original location, where it is housed in a new building designed by the architects Behnisch & Partner. More information

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