VISITING COLD WAR LANDMARKS IN BERLIN

 Berlin is a city that seamlessly blends history, culture, and modern vibrancy. As Germany’s capital, it has been at the heart of pivotal historical events, from the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall to its transformation into a global hub for art, music, and innovation. On August 13, 1961, the government of the GDR began to build a barbed wire and concrete “antifascist bulwark,” between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep so-called Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West. The Berlin Wall stood until November 9, 1989, when the head of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased. That night, ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall. Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself. To this day, the Berlin Wall remains one of the most powerful and enduring symbols of the Cold War. Other Cold War Landmarks in Berlin include the Brandenburg Gate, East Side Gallery, Checkpoint Charlie, and Potsdamer Platz.

Berlin is packed with Cold War landmarks that tell the story of its divided past. Some of the most significant sites include:

- Berlin Wall Memorial – A preserved section of the Wall at Bernauer Straße, offering a powerful look at its impact.

- Checkpoint Charlie – The famous border crossing between East and West Berlin, now a museum.

- East Side Gallery – A 1.3 km stretch of the Berlin Wall covered in murals by artists from around the world.

- Stasi Museum – Located in the former headquarters of East Germany’s secret police, showcasing surveillance methods.

- Palace of Tears (Tränenpalast) – A former border crossing where families were separated.

- Allied Museum – Focuses on the role of Western Allies in Berlin during the Cold War.

- Karlshorst Museum – Highlights Soviet military history in Berlin.

Berlin's and it's Cold War History

The Brandenburg Gate is one of the most iconic sights in today’s vibrant Berlin. More than just Berlin’s only surviving historical city gate, this site came to symbolise Berlin’s Cold War division into East and West – and, since the fall of the Wall, a reunified Germany. Architecturally, the sandstone Brandenburg Gate also represents one of the earliest and most attractive examples of a neo-classical building in Germany. Constructed between 1788 and 1791, the Brandenburg Gate was Berlin’s first Greek revival building. Designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans, architect to the Prussian court, it was inspired by the monumental gateway at the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens. The Brandenburg Gate is 26 metres high, 65.5 metres long and 11 metres deep, and supported by two rows of six Doric columns. In 1793, the gate was crowned by the Quadriga statue, designed by Johann Gottfried Schadow. This statue also has its own story to tell. In 1806, when Napoleon’s army took Berlin, the French Emperor had the Quadriga transported to Paris as war booty and a sign of his victory. In 1814, after Napoleon’s forced abdication, the Quadriga was returned to Berlin where it once again adorned the Brandenburg Gate,  facing towards the east and the city centre. In 1946, with the post-war division of Germany and Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate was in the Soviet sector. When the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, the Gate stood in an exclusion zone in an arc of the Wall, inaccessible for locals and visitors alike. When the Wall fell, 100,000 people gathered here for the Brandenburg Gate’s official opening on 22 December 1989 – and soon afterwards, crowds thronged the area to celebrate their first joint New Year’s Eve in this once-divided city. Today, more than almost any other of the city’s landmark sights, the Brandenburg Gate symbolises a reunited Berlin.

After the end of the Second World War, tensions between the USA and the USSR became greater and greater. The disputes over the future of Germany were decisive, but there were also clashes around the world. Political and ideological differences develop into a deep division between West and East, which is strongly perceived and enforced by both sides. The period of this threatening division has gone down in history as the "Cold War".  In June 1961, the number of GDR citizens moving to the West rises to around 31,400. In order to prevent a further increase in the number of people fleeing the GDR via West Berlin, the GDR government has decided to seal off the border rigorously. Construction of the Berlin Wall along the sector border began on 13 August 1961. The sealing off of the border is radical; all contact between citizens in West Berlin and the eastern part of the city is blocked. It would be ten years before East and West Berlin were connected via ten direct telephone lines in 1971. This wall, at which many people trying to flee to the West would die in the following years, would remain standing until the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989. The 35th anniversary of the fall of the Wall will be celebrated in Berlin in November 2024. 

Checkpoint Charlie became the most famous crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin. On 22 September 1961, Allied guards began registering members of the American, British and French forces before trips to East Berlin and foreign tourists could find out about their stay there. Once the checkpoint was designated a crossing point for members of the Allied armed forces, a month later in October 1961 it became the scene of a tank confrontation. American and Soviet tanks took up position and faced each other with weapons primed. Located on the corner of Friedrichstraße and Zimmerstraße, it is a reminder of the former border crossing, the Cold War and the partition of Berlin. The barrier and checkpoint booth, the flag and the sandbags are all based on the original site – and are a popular subject for photos.

                           

Impressive buildings were constructed in both parts of Berlin between 1961 and 1989. The development of the centre of the "capital of the GDR" between Alexanderplatz and Marx-Engels-Platz, the Palace of the Republic and the "prefabricated housing estates" in Marzahn, Hohenschönhausen and Hellersdorf in the east were contrasted in the west by the New National Gallery by Mies van der Rohe, the new State Library and the Philharmonic Hall by Hans Scharoun, the International Congress Centre (ICC) and the high-rise housing estates of Gropiusstadt, Märkisches Viertel and Falkenhagener Feld. On the western side, thirty years after the major International Building Exhibition Interbau of 1957,the International Building Exhibition 1984/1987 is intended to reclaim West Berlin's city centre as a residential location through critical reconstruction and careful urban renewal. 

Berlin Wall Memorial

Bernauer Straße, on the boundary between the districts of Wedding and Mitte, became a historical site with the erection of the Wall. The Berlin Wall was erected here in August 1961 directly in front of the East Berlin houses. Some residents decided to take flight at the last minute and used ropes to climb out their windows. Others were forced to move out and the windows of their flats were bricked over. The picture of the GDR soldier Conrad Schumann, who jumped over the barbed wire two days after the division of Berlin, is still famous today. Over the years the East Berliners constructed numerous escape tunnels around Bernauer Straße. When the partition of the city was finally over the first segments were broken off the Berlin Wall in the night from the 10th to the 11th of November 1989 in Bernauer Straße. A GDR soldier jumping over the fence at the last moment. People jumping out of windows into sheets held out by West Berlin firemen – images of Bernauer Straße in August 1961 were seen all over the world. Today this historic location is the site of the Berlin Wall Memorial where the partition of Berlin is remembered.

The large open air exhibition on the former border strip covers four areas with historical audio materials and pictures, a visitors’ centre and an observation tower. There is a 70-metre stretch on the Berlin Wall with border strip and watchtower directly on Bernauer Straße. The installation shows how the border was set up at the end of the 80s and gives visitors the lasting impression of the construction that once divided a country. The exhibition in the documentation centre is on the other side of Bernauer Straße and shows the history of the construction of the wall in 1961. You can take a look at the remaining parts of the border crossing from a five-storey observation tower. There is also a Chapel of Reconciliation on the site. The former Church of Reconciliation was demolished in 1985 as it was directly on the border strip. Visitors to services in the new chapel regularly remember the victims of the Wall. The Window of Memorial on the site portrays the 130 people who were shot or died on the Berlin Wall.

East Side Gallery

In 1990, the artists painted their pictures on the Berlin Wall. From 1961 to 1989, it separated Friedrichshain in East Berlin from Kreuzberg in West Berlin. To expand the border area, the buildings on the banks of the Spree were demolished and people had to move. At least 13 people died in the area between Oberbaumbrücke and Ostbahnhof. In this guided tour, historical traces of the division are discovered and artworks of the East Side Gallery are presented that deal with life in the GDR and the overcoming of the SED dictatorship. With their artwork, the artists were able to hinder the demolition, further decay and destruction of the Wall. The city of Berlin added the East Side Gallery to its register of protected monuments in November 1991. The East Side Gallery is the most visible outcome of the opening of the Wall, but now, with almost the entire Berlin Wall gone, it is also one of the few remaining relics of the border fortifications at its original location, serving as a reminder that the city was divided for 28 years.

The East Side Gallery extends along more than 1.3 kilometers between Ostbahnof and Oberbaum Bridge, and is one of the city’s most famous tourist attractions. More than 118 artists from 21 countries worked on the world’s longest open-air gallery. Their paintings help keep the historical site alive and make its history accessible to visitors from all over the world. The East Side Gallery stands both as a symbol of joy over the end of Germany’s division and as a historical reminder of the inhumanity of the GDR border regime. Learn more about how the East Side Gallery was created, which artists participated in the project, and how the gallery has changed since its opening in 1990. The East Side Gallery opened on September 28, 1990. The artists created murals with individual messages and statements, demonstrating that, in the end, the desire for freedom and creativity is stronger than sanctions and force. The more than 100 paintings showed the happiness felt over the fall of the Wall and the end of the Cold War. They expressed their hopes for a life in peace, freedom and democracy. However, many works of art also conveyed concerns about an uncertain future. 

The last large-scale renovation of the East Side Gallery took place in 2009. The renovation was necessary due to weather-related decay, massive amounts of graffiti and both minor and major acts of vandalism. 

Checkpoint Charlie

Following the NATO alphabet, it was named Checkpoint Charlie – after Checkpoint Alpha on the inner-German border and Checkpoint Bravo on the border between East Germany and West Berlin. Initially, only the US occupying forces, but soon the British and French military also controlled border traffic and the protection of Allied rights here. On official state visits, guests were often taken to this world-famous site of the Berlin Wall. It also became a popular place for protests. The protesters were often welcomed by the House at Checkpoint Charlie, a museum run by Rainer Hildebrandt. In 1963, he opened an exhibition about the Berlin Wall here that presented different escape attempts and addressed human rights issues. Thanks to this exhibition and a large viewing platform erected at the Wall, Checkpoint Charlie became a tourist attraction already before the fall of the Wall. On the East Berlin side, the GDR continued to expand its border crossing and border strip. Throughout the 1960s, the GDR extended the border crossing over a wide area. It cleared ruins from the Friedrichstrasse grounds and erected security and clearance buildings there.

                              

The border was blocked by barriers, massive concrete obstacles and tank traps. Pedestrians now had to enter a narrow passageway on the sidewalk. A small control tower was erected in the middle of Friedrichstrasse. It was replaced by a taller one in the early 1970s. To accommodate the increase in tourist traffic at the border in the 1970s, plans for an entirely new crossing were developed, but the new design was not completed until the 1980s. The border crossing area was paved with asphalt and more vehicle lanes were added. Border traffic was now routed not only along Friedrichstrasse, but also across the adjacent property between Friedrichstrasse and Mauerstrasse. In the mid-1980s, another major expansion took place. New control towers were erected and border control buildings were placed under a large hall construction. 

                             

The border crossing at Friedrichstrasse and Zimmerstrasse was a “hole in the wall” in two respects. For one, people from all over the world crossed the East-West border here, bringing different lifestyles and viewpoints into East Berlin and the GDR. 

Stasi Museum

In Normannenstraße, to the east of Berlin city centre, you'll find the Stasi Museum, formerly home of the Ministry of State Security. In this building you can discover how the Stasi operates and take a look at their original technology such as bugs, hidden cameras and weapons. The main attraction is the office of Erich Mielke, Minister of State Security and head of the Stasi from 1957 to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The second floor of the building remains untouched since the days of the Stasi, complete with desks, chairs and filing cabinets. The complex of buildings at Normannenstraße is the original financial office for the surrounding district, and it is not until 1961 that the Ministry of National Security is established in the building. Building Number 1 is then occupied by Erich Mielke for almost three decades. During the 1970s, the size of the Stasi operation expands greatly and occupies the whole site, even taking over an Apostolic Church building. This building complex becomes the control centre for surveillance throughout East Germany and an embodiment of state power. The ministry remains until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and on 15th January 1990 the building is occupied by demonstrators. There is a growing popular demand to disband the Stasi's operations and make their files public, and the process moves quickly.

By November 1990 a volunteer group mount the first public exhibition in the building, allowing ordinary East Germans in for the first time in decades - something unthinkable only a few months before. Today's visitors can see the permanent exhibition on State Surveillance during the GDR era and see the highly secretive methods used for spying on citizens. One of the stand-out exhibits is Mielke's red briefcase, in which he keeps the most sensitive information, including files on his own boss Erich Honecker. The museum also explains how informants are recruited, how the population is controlled, and ordinary people share how surveillance impacts their lives. At the heart of the museum on the second floor are the Ministerial offices, where even the curtains and telephones are untouched from the days when they were occupied by Mielke and his colleagues. 

The only things removed from the museum are the Stasi files, so numerous that the indexing and cataloguing process is still ongoing.

Palace of Tears

Parting tears. This is what the partition of Germany meant for many Berliners and their personal stories can be found in the Tränenpalast. Immediately after the construction of the Berlin Wall, the GDR erected the check-in hall at Friedrichstraße railway station in 1962. It was used for passengers crossing from East to West Berlin. The glass and steel pavilion was very much in keeping with the architecture of the era. Only passengers who wished to travel to West Berlin on the S-Bahn or U-Bahn could access the Tränenpalast. Policemen checked passports and visas, customs officers checked luggage and finally passports were checked thoroughly once more before onward travel was permitted. The permanent exhibition "Site of German Division" documents the fate of the Tränenpalast. Interviews with contemporary witnesses, biographies and 570 original objects illustrate the history from 1962 to 1990. Where customs controls were once carried out, there are now open suitcases with memorabilia of the travellers. The feeling in the narrow corridor of the passport control is still oppressive. Numerous signs could be preserved and show the instructions at the border crossing.

The building is prestigious, deliberately designed in an impressive modern style, hiding its function as a strictly guarded check-in hall with border troops. Screens shield the eyes of passers-by. The infrastructure of the interior of the building is well-planned, with the route to the East appearing light and, by contrast, the route to the West being dark. In the station, a jumble of signs show the way. The routes taken by East and West Germans and overseas travellers are strictly separated. These days, on entering the building, you will first see the grand staircase in the bright hall. Visit the restored inspection rooms to experience the oppressive atmosphere.

Brandenburg Gate

Berlin was bombarded in the final days of World War II and Brandenburg Gate, the city’s symbol of victory, national pride, and the Nazi party, was a frequent target. Although it was highly damaged, the Gate survived the war and became a witness to a new era of history. Because of its central location in the city, Brandenburg Gate was used to mark the boundary between Communist East Berlin and the Federal Republic of West Berlin. Walled off from both sides with concrete and barbed wire, the Gate was not accessible to the public for nearly thirty years. However, with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Brandenburg Gate was integrated back into the reunited country. To ensure its new place as a symbol of unification, West Germany’s Chancellor Helmut Kohl, walked through Brandenburg Gate to meet East Germany’s Prime Minister, Hans Modrow on the other side. Although the Gate today represents a united Germany, its solid presence also acts as a reminder of this once divided nation. Today, approaching the 25th anniversary of unification, the Brandenburg Gate is a key symbol of modern Berlin and visited by tourists daily. Still dominating the Pariser Platz after more than two centuries, the Gate remains the visual embodiment of German identity.

                               

As a national icon and potent symbol for the German state, Brandenburg Gate has been a military target and the frequent focus of rebuilding efforts. For example, at the end of World War II, the Allies bombed many of Berlin’s historic buildings and structures, leaving Brandenburg Gate extensively damaged. After a decade of neglect, the governments of East and West Berlin decided to undertake the restoration of this national symbol together in 1956, shortly before the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Much of the damaged sandstone was restored and the crippled quadriga replaced, but the eagle and cross motif held by Victory that represented Prussia was replaced with an East German flag. In late 1989, during the nationwide celebration of unification and the fall of the Berlin Wall, many spectators climbed Brandenburg Gate’s highest reaches, damaging both the Gate and its central sculpture of Victory. 

Ten years later, the entire Gate was once again restored to its original state. Although its status as a national treasure means that Brandenburg Gate may always be under threat, as a witness to centuries of German history, it must be preserved.

Alexanderplatz

Alexanderplatz is Berlin’s eastern centre and is an important transport junction – for the S-Bahn, U-Bahn, regional trains, trams and buses. It also has a great many great tourist attractions within walking distance, making it the ideal starting point for a sightseeing tour of Berlin. Up to the 1850s, Alexanderplatz was a military parade and exercise ground, as well as a place where local farmers sold their produce. It became a major transport junction when the railway station opened in 1882. The construction of the central market hall in 1886 and the Tietz department store between 1904 and 1911 made the square the city’s main shopping centre. It gained literary fame around the world with Alfred Döblin’s 1929 novel Berlin Alexanderplatz. Largely destroyed in the Second World War, Alexanderplatz did not take its current shape until the 1960s. With the square converted to a pedestrian zone, it is surrounded by busy multiple-lane roads. It was during this time that the big department store then known as Centrum was built, along with the adjacent Alex-Passagen, the Weltzeituhr (world clock), the Brunnen der Völkerfreundschaft (Fountain of International Friendship) and the Fernsehturm – East Berlin’s famous television tower. After the square was completed in 1971, it was often the venue for large events such as the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the GDR.

Since reunification, Alexanderplatz has been in a constant state of change: a shopping centre, a multiplex cinema, a department store, shops, hotels – more and more facilities are being built, yet there are still gaps. There are plans for several high-rise buildings around the square, but whether and in what form this project takes place has not yet been decided. Only one thing’s for certain: Alexanderplatz is still the biggest public square in any city in Germany. The Weltzeituhr on Alexanderplatz is a real eye-catcher and at the same time a reminder of GDR times. It was designed in the course of the socialist redesign of Alexanderplatz and was installed in September 1969. After the reunification the clock was restored. Some mistakes were corrected, because some cities were assigned to wrong time zones during GDR times. Since 2015, the World Time Clock has been a listed building and is still a popular meeting place for Berliners and tourists alike.

                             

Cold War Walking Tour

Start by visiting East Side Gallery along the 1.3km stretch remnants of the remaining wall.

Then Berlin Wall Memorial and the popular sites in the open air museum

Stop by Checkpoint Charlie on the corner of Friedrichstraße and Zimmerstraße

Swing by the Palace of Tears, a place where many families were separated.

Explore Brandenberg Gate, an icon of Germany and an important landmark during the Cold war.

End your day in Alexanderplatz and visit the Berlin TV Tower.

                              

Why visit Cold War attractions in Berlin?

Visiting Cold War attractions in Berlin offers a fascinating journey through one of the most pivotal periods in modern history. Instead of just reading about the Cold War, you can stand where history happened—at places like Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall Memorial, and the East Side Gallery. Museums like the Stasi Museum and the Palace of Tears reveal the personal struggles of those who lived through surveillance, separation, and oppression. Berlin’s Cold War-era buildings and landmarks, such as Karl-Marx-Allee, showcase the distinct styles of East and West Berlin, offering insight into political ideologies. Berlin was at the heart of the Cold War conflict. Exploring these sites helps uncover why the city was so important in the battle between democracy and communism.