Berlin Cold War History Walking Tour

This private walking tour brings you to the places, where famous events of the Cold War happened and history was written. On this tour you will also see original pieces of the Wall, one of the last remaining guard towers and Checkpoint Charlie.
The tour starts at the Berlin Wall Documentation Center in the street "Bernauer Strasse", where many of the dramatic escape attempts took place, successful and tragic ones. You will ride one of the subways that were called "ghost trains" during the division of the city, so-called because of the gloomy atmosphere in the underground stations close to the wall. The tour also covers Checkpoint Charlie, the former military checkpoint and hot spot of the Cold War. This is the site where the fate of mankind was hanging by a thread in 1961 when US and Soviet tanks confronted each other.

Meeting Point

Bernauer Str.

10115 Berlin, Germany

Underground station "Bernauer Strasse" - at the exit "Bernauer Strasse" - upstairs

What's included:

• Private tour
• Professional guide

Not included:

• Tickets for public transportation

What to expect:

Duration: 2 hours

Memorial of the Berlin Wall

Bernauer Strasse 111, Berlin, 13355

Your guide will take you on a walk along the former death strip in the city center of Berlin and to a visit of the authentic sites and documentation centers.
The tour starts at the Berlin Wall Documentation Center north of downtown Berlin. Here, in "Bernauer Strasse", many of the dramatic escape attempts took place, successful and tragic ones. See, where famous events of the Cold War happened, like the young East German soldier jumping over the barbed wire or where people died after jumping out of the windows into the West because the front of their houses formed the Berlin Wall. Maps and an open-air exhibition will help you to understand what it meant to live in the divided Berlin.

45 minutes

GDR Watch Tower

Erna Berger Strasse, Berlin, 10117

On the tour you will also see the last remaining original pieces of the Wall and also one of the last remaining Watch Towers built on the "Death Strip" that once divided the city.

10 minutes

Palace of Tears

Reichstagufer 17, Mitte, Berlin, 10117

You will ride on one of the subways that were called "ghost trains" during the division of the city. So-called because of the gloomy atmosphere in the underground stations close to the wall.
Using one of those former ghost-lines we will reach the "Palace of Tears". See where Germans from West Berlin could travel to the East and visit their relatives. When they had to go back, they had to say goodbye to each other at this checkpoint. That is why this former checkpoint is called "Palace of Tears". See the building and the inside documentation center.

30 minutes

Checkpoint Charlie

Friedrichstr. 43-45, Zimmerstraße, Berlin, 10117

The tour also covers Checkpoint Charlie, the former military checkpoint and hot spot of the Cold War. This is the site where the fate of mankind was hanging by a thread in 1961 when US and Soviet tanks confronted each other.
The tour ends at the Wall Museum which you may visit afterwards.

20 minutes