gdr

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

At OSTEL, you quickly feel transported back to the past. Everything here is furnished in the old East German chic, with yellow patterned wallpaper, floor lamps with beige lampshades, and functional furniture.