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The Hohenschönhausen Memorial is located in the former central Stasi prison of the GDR.
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Experience GDR up close
Last updated on 06/29/2026
The 10 best places to experience the GDR up close in Berlin
The fact that Berlin was once the centre of the GDR can still be traced at many places across the city. Some houses stand on the original sites of the SED and the Stasi, others tell of the completely ordinary everyday life of the people in East Berlin. In the DDR Museum you can touch Dederon and try out the Trabi, the Stasimuseum shows Erich Mielke's office along with its spying technology, and the museum flat WBS 70 in Hellersdorf preserves a complete prefab household in its original condition. Added to these are the Gedenkstaette Hohenschoenhausen, the Cafe Sibylle on Karl-Marx-Allee and the Boesebruecke, over which the first border crossing opened in 1989. Which of these places would you head to first?
Viktoria Tkachenko
For me, history becomes tangible where you can touch it. While researching this list, I learned a lot about everyday life in the GDR between Stasi bugs and Dederon aprons. The museum flat in Hellersdorf impressed me in particular. I am taking you to ten places where the GDR is not only memory but experience.
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In front of the museum is the former Checkpoint Charlie. Inside, everything revolves around the creative escape attempts of people in the GDR and the border security system of that time.
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Café Sibylle is a long-established historical witness in the heritage-protected part of Karl-Marx-Allee.
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Together with tens of thousands of other GDR citizens, Chancellor Angela Merkel crossed into the West at this very spot on the day the Wall fell.
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The Evangelical Gethsemane Church in Prenzlauer Berg stands for the peaceful revolution in the GDR.
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The residential buildings in the typical Moscow 'gingerbread style' characterize Europe's only boulevard built after the war! Today, Karl-Marx-Allee, with the two striking towers of Frankfurter Tor, is a protected monument – it is Germany's longest contiguous architectural monument.
Karl-Marx-Allee 93B, 10243 Berlin Friedrichshainwww.berlin.de/sehenswuerdigkeiten/3559790-3558930-karl-marx-allee.html
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They are the intellectual fathers of communism – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 20, 10178 Berlin Mittewww.berlin.de/sehenswuerdigkeiten/3561030-3558930-marx-engels-forum.html
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A prefabricated concrete panel building apartment still furnished with original GDR furniture – this historical document can be visited in Hellersdorf!
Hellersdorfer Str. 179, 12627 Berlin Hellersdorf+49 1511 6114447www.stadtundland.de/33_museumswohnung.htm
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Erich Mielke's study with adjoining casino, espionage technology such as bugs and hidden infrared emitters, as well as machine guns hidden in suitcases can be viewed in the Stasi Museum.
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