Last updated on 10/26/2026
Nowhere can the history of divided Germany be experienced as directly as in Berlin. On Bernauer Strasse, the Berlin Wall Memorial keeps 1.4 kilometres of the former border strip open to the public, the Tränenpalast at Friedrichstrasse station still holds the original passport control booth of the border crossing, and at Museum Berlin-Karlshorst in Lichtenberg the Wehrmacht signed its unconditional surrender in 1945. Add to that Schönhausen Palace in Pankow, where Wilhelm Pieck had his official residence as the first president of the GDR, the Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park, the Allied Museum in Dahlem with its candy bomber and control hut, and Tempelhof Airport, where National Socialism, the airlift and the Cold War come together. Ten places for everyone who wants to understand how two Germanys became one again. Where would you start your tour?
Ellen Mehrhoff-Roddewig
Many of us know the Wall only from stories. That makes places that keep this history alive all the more important to me. While putting this list together, it was the Traenenpalast above all that moved me. I am showing you ten stations where the German-German past can still be felt today.
On Bernauer Strasse, the Berlin Wall Memorial stretches over 1.4 kilometers of former border strip. Between two steel walls, 70 meters of the original border installations with a hinterland wall, watchtower, and death strip are preserved. For German-German history in Berlin, this is the place where the division becomes physically comprehensible.
At Friedrichstraße station, the Tränenpalast (Palace of Tears) stands as the former departure hall of the border crossing point, built in 1962 directly after the construction of the Berlin Wall. Spanning 550 square meters, the permanent exhibition showcases over 550 objects, including an original passport control booth. For German-German history in Berlin, this is the ultimate place of farewells.
In Lichtenberg stands a building that doesn't just display history, but *is* history: At the Berlin-Karlshorst Museum, the Wehrmacht signed its unconditional surrender on the night of May 9, 1945. Until 1949, the Soviet Military Administration was based here, and the permanent exhibition shows the war from both German and Soviet perspectives.
Where the death strip once divided the city, today stands the power center of reunited Germany. The Berlin Government District in Mitte is not a museum district, but living history: the Reichstag, the 'Band des Bundes' (Federal Ribbon), and silent memorials tell stories of division, unity, and democracy in a confined space.
Treptower Park is home to Germany's largest Soviet War Memorial, a 100,000 square meter complex built between 1946 and 1949. Approximately 7,000 Red Army soldiers are buried beneath the lawn, topped by an 11.6-meter-high bronze figure. The site recounts German-German history as a triumph staged by the occupying power.
With eight courtyards spanning 27,000 square meters, the Hackesche Höfe in Berlin-Mitte is Germany's largest enclosed courtyard complex. Opened in 1906, it became public property after the war and fell into disrepair until it was renovated in the 1990s for 80 million Deutschmarks. German-German history is revealed here as a sequence of decay and reconstruction.
Located in Dahlem, at the heart of the former American sector, the Allied Museum preserves the history of the Western powers in Berlin from the end of the war in 1945 until the withdrawal of Allied forces in 1994. 'Raisin Bombers', the Checkpoint Charlie control booth, and a segment of the spy tunnel make the Cold War tangible. Admission is free.
At Platz der Luftbrücke stands Tempelhof Airport, Europe's largest architectural monument, built from 1936 as a prestige project of the National Socialists. In 1948, the 'Raisin Bombers' of the Berlin Airlift landed here, after which the US Air Force used the site until the end of the Cold War. Guided tours lead through hangars, bunkers, and transit passages.
In Pankow, Schönhausen Palace is a Baroque building where Prussian and GDR history immediately follow each other. First the summer residence of Queen Elisabeth Christine, it served as Wilhelm Pieck's official residence from 1949 to 1960 and then as a guesthouse for the GDR government. In 1990, the Two Plus Four Talks on German reunification were prepared here.
At Checkpoint Charlie, the asisi Panorama The Wall shows everyday life in divided Berlin in the 1980s across 900 square meters. From a four-meter-high platform, visitors look over the death strip to East Berlin, in a 1:1 scale, amidst dilapidated houses, punks, and border guards. German-German history is not explained here, but shown.
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