Last updated on 10/22/2026
Where did the Wall actually stand? Visitors ask this again and again, and in some places it can still be answered impressively today. The Gedenkstaette Berliner Mauer on Bernauer Strasse shows over a long stretch what the border installation really looked like, complete with watchtower and death strip. At Checkpoint Charlie, the Mauermuseum recalls the spectacular escape attempts, while at the East Side Gallery in Friedrichshain art stretches across the longest preserved piece of the Wall. The Mauerpark carries the division in its very name and is now a meeting point rather than a border, and the Gedenkstaette Guenter Litfin preserves the memory of one of the first victims of the Wall. History becomes tangible here. Which of these places brings the division home to you most powerfully?
Ellen Mehrhoff-Roddewig
I grew up in a city where the Wall can only be made out as a strip of cobblestones in the ground. That makes places like the memorial on Bernauer Strasse, where the border becomes visible again, all the more important to me. For this list I put together the spots where the division of Berlin can truly be grasped.
On Bernauer Strasse, the border ran straight through a row of houses, from whose windows people jumped into West Berlin. Today, the Berlin Wall Memorial stretches over 4.4 hectares and 1.4 kilometers, featuring the only section of border fortifications preserved in full depth. The Window of Remembrance names the 132 civilian victims.
Where American and Soviet tanks faced each other in 1961, stands the Wall Museum at Checkpoint Charlie, founded in 1963 by Rainer Hildebrandt. On approximately 2,000 square meters, you'll find escape cars, hollowed-out surfboards, a hot air balloon, and a self-built mini-submarine. Hardly any Berlin Wall site displays so many original escape objects.
Between Ostbahnhof and Oberbaumbrücke, the East Side Gallery stands as the longest preserved section of the Berlin Wall: 1.3 kilometers painted by 118 artists from 21 countries in the spring of 1990. Berlin has included the gallery in its list of monuments since November 1991. Among the Berlin Wall sites, it is the most colorful.
Over 160 kilometers, the Berlin Wall Trail follows the former border strip around West Berlin, divided into 14 stages between Lübars in the north and the Brandenburg countryside. More than a hundred overview maps and forty information stations explain what happened where along the way. Among the Berlin Wall sites, it is the only one you can travel for hours.
On approximately 2,850 square meters in the government district, Ben Wagin established the Parliament of Trees on the former border strip in 1990. A square of 16 trees was planted by the state premiers, and the names of 258 victims of the border regime are inscribed on granite slabs. Among the Berlin Wall sites, this is the greenest.
Eleven days after the Berlin Wall was built, Günter Litfin was shot dead on August 24, 1961, in Humboldthafen, becoming the first victim to die by gunfire at the Berlin Wall. The Günter Litfin Memorial is located in the former border tower at Kieler Eck, one of only three remaining towers in the city. His brother Jürgen saved it from demolition.
In Schlesischer Busch Park on Puschkinallee stands the GDR Watchtower, not a simple observation post, but a command center: From here, 18 watchtowers and the electronic security systems of this border section were controlled. Of 302 towers around West Berlin, three remain. Among the Berlin Wall sites, this is the most authentic.
On Zimmerstrasse in Kreuzberg, about 200 meters from the former Checkpoint Charlie, stands a 2.60-meter-high steel stele by Karl Biedermann. It marks the spot where 18-year-old Peter Fechter bled to death on August 17, 1962, after an escape attempt. No other Berlin Wall site makes the border regime so immediately tangible.
Where the death strip once ran between Prenzlauer Berg and Wedding, there are now almost 15 hectares of park. Behind the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark, about 300 meters of the original inner wall still stand, protected as a historic monument since 2001 and long covered in street art. Among Berlin Wall sites, Mauerpark is the most vibrant.
Behind the East entrance of the Reichstag, seven white wooden crosses hang in the Spree's riverbank railing, erected in 1971 by the Berliner Bürger-Verein. They name thirteen victims of the Berlin Wall, from Günter Litfin to Chris Gueffroy. The water at that time belonged to East Berlin; whoever jumped here was immediately in GDR sovereign waters.
