10 Locations
The border strip, or death strip, was the deadly no man's land between the two Berlin Walls. Today its course is marked across the city, and the former border strip has become a green trail, a memory and a place of remembrance.
This overview gathers Berlin locations along the border strip, from the Wall Memorial on Bernauer Straße to watchtowers and open-air exhibitions. Some focus on the mechanics of the border, others on the victims and the stories of escape.
Browse the places below to explore the former border strip in Berlin, compare exhibitions and opening hours, and plan your visit.
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.
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.
The Floating Lounge is located on a moored ship in the Spree, twenty meters from the East Side Gallery, with a view of the Oberbaumbrücke. Depending on the setup, it can be booked exclusively for 20 to 120 people; the indoor area is heated and weather-protected. As a birthday venue in Friedrichshain, it operates year-round.
After the war, Potsdamer Platz, on the border of Tiergarten and Mitte, lay fallow for almost fifty years because the Berlin Wall ran right through it. Since 1998, a complete district covering 68,000 square meters has stood here, through which approximately 100,000 people pass each day. The Panoramapunkt in the Kollhoff Tower takes guests up 100 meters in about 20 seconds.
The Berlin Wall Memorial is the central place of the German division and is in the historical site of Bernauer Strasse.
The large Panorama wall of the artist Yadegar Asisi visualizes the daily life next to the Berlin wall on a fictitious autumn day in the 1980s.
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.
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.
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.
Pictures, films, original quotes, interviews and games make history and histories of the Berlin Wall come alive with the multimedia WallGuide.