Eastberlin

The Hohenschönhausen Memorial is located in Lichtenberg behind a four-meter-high wall and served as the central remand prison for the State Security from 1951 to 1990. Approximately 10,000 people were incarcerated here. Today, eyewitnesses who were themselves imprisoned lead visitors through the cells and interrogation rooms, making the GDR dictatorship immediately comprehensible.

The Stasi Museum is located in House 1 of the former Stasi headquarters on Normannenstraße in Lichtenberg, where up to 7,000 people worked at times. Minister Erich Mielke's offices have been preserved in their original condition, along with hidden cameras, microphones, and disguised IDs. Anyone who wants to experience the GDR up close will find themselves in the workroom of the State Security here.

The Deutschlandmuseum on Leipziger Platz stands on the former death strip and leads visitors through 2,000 years of German history in twelve walk-through rooms. The years of German division form one of these epochs, featuring the Berlin Wall and the last bread of the GDR. Those who wish to place the GDR in a broader context will find the appropriate setting here.

The WBS 70 Museum Apartment is located on the ground floor of an occupied prefabricated building on Hellersdorfer Straße, showcasing a complete GDR apartment from 1986 across 61 square meters. Wall unit, color TV, and even the salt shaker are still in place. A Hellersdorf resident, who knows the prefab building from personal experience, guides visitors through the three rooms.

With the Trabi Safari in Mitte, you don't sit in the back of a tour bus, but rather at the wheel of a two-stroke vehicle yourself. Around a hundred Trabis are ready on Zimmerstraße, driven in a convoy of up to six cars, with the guide commenting via radio. For Ostalgie in Berlin, this is the version with a clutch, four-speed gearshift, and the smell of a two-stroke engine.

The Mauermuseum (Wall Museum) at Checkpoint Charlie stands directly at the former Allied control point on Friedrichstraße and has been collecting stories of escape from the GDR since 1963. On display are real escape vehicles, including a BMW Isetta, a mini-submarine, and a hot air balloon. 45 exhibition areas, including its own cinema, are spread across three levels.

The Kino International on Karl-Marx-Allee was the premiere cinema of the DEFA and has been back in operation since February 2026 after a renovation costing around 15 million Euros. The floating foyer bar from 1963, the concrete relief on the side walls, and the panoramic bar have remained. For Ostalgie in Berlin, this is the place with the greatest contrast between concrete and glamour.

The Wall Museum East Side Gallery is located in the old mill granary at the Oberbaum Bridge, i.e., in the former death strip. In 13 rooms, over 100 screens, original wall segments, and interviews with contemporary witnesses recount the years from 1945 to 1990. Those looking for 'Ostalgie' in Berlin will find a counter-narrative here: the GDR from the perspective of those who wanted to leave.

The Volkskammer in Straße der Pariser Kommune has been serving exclusively GDR cuisine since 2010: Hunter's schnitzel made from breaded Jagdwurst, homemade Soljanka, Goldbroiler, and Quarkkeulchen. In the dining room, pennants, a mural of the Palace of the Republic, and portraits of the state leadership hang. Ostalgia in Berlin gets a menu here instead of a display case.

At Friedrichstraße station, there is a glass and steel pavilion that served as the departure hall at the border between East and West Berlin during GDR times. Today, the Tränenpalast (Palace of Tears) houses a permanent exhibition about everyday life in divided Germany, with free admission.

The first ever Ampelmann Shop is located in the fifth courtyard of the Hackesche Höfe, opened in 2001 by Markus Heckhausen, who initially assembled the lamps himself. Over 600 products revolve around the figure that Karl Peglau designed for East Berlin traffic lights in 1961. Eastalgia in Berlin thus has an address where it has become a brand.

The DDR Speisegaststätte Pionierlager on Prenzlauer Allee is a restaurant and private GDR collection in one. Fifty seats are arranged between display cases full of everyday objects from forty years of East Germany. The menu features Jägerschnitzel made from Jagdwurst, Soljanka, and Grilletta. Here, Ostalgia in Berlin means eating the GDR instead of just looking at it.

Bäckerei & Konditorei M. Biesewski in Pasteurstraße in Bötzowkiez bakes in its own in-house bakery, without preservatives and with nine employees. It is famous for its Old Berlin Schrippen, which are as small and compact as in GDR times. If you want to taste rather than visit Ostalgie in Berlin, you queue up here in the morning.

Gaststätte W. Prassnik on Torstraße in Mitte claims to be a replica of an HO Gaststätte, a state-run GDR establishment. They serve home-brewed Prassnik beer in a light and a dark variety. Reservations are not possible. For Ostalgie in Berlin, this is the most unassuming address in the city.

Café Sibylle at Karl-Marx-Allee 72 opened in October 1953 as a milk bar and was later named after the GDR women's magazine Sibylle. Besides coffee and cake, it hosts a free permanent exhibition on post-war modernism in East and West. The most famous exhibit is an ear from the Stalin Monument, which stood on the avenue until 1961.

On the evening of November 9, 1989, the Bösebrücke on Bornholmer Straße was the first border crossing to open, hours before other barriers went up elsewhere. The steel bridge, opened in 1916, still stands today, and at the eastern bridgehead, the Square of November 9, 1989, with metal reliefs and a section of the forefield wall, commemorates that night.

The Gethsemane Church on Stargarder Straße was consecrated in 1893 in the presence of the imperial couple and was the center of the East Berlin opposition movement in autumn 1989. Candles burned outside its gates, and thousands kept vigil inside under the motto 'Watch and pray.' This is where the Peaceful Revolution in Berlin began.

Karl-Marx-Allee stretches for about two kilometers from Frankfurter Tor to Strausberger Platz and is the largest preserved grand boulevard of the GDR. Hermann Henselmann's twin towers, the workers' palaces in socialist classicism, and the 1960s buildings such as Kino International and Café Moskau are now listed as an ensemble.

Alain Snack is located directly at the Schönhauser Allee S-Bahn and U-Bahn station and is considered Berlin's last snack bar selling Ketwurst made according to a GDR recipe: a long bun pierced with a hot metal cylinder, the Bockwurst dipped in ketchup. You can hardly eat more 'Ostalgie' in Berlin for little money, and the brightly tiled stall is part of the scene.