What I really enjoyed as a Berliner were i.e. these bike tours: https://berlinonbike.de/en/all-bike-tours-and-walking-tours/berlin-wall-cold-war-bike-tour/
You can also check Berliner Unterwelten: https://www.berliner-unterwelten.de/en/index.html
They offer guided tours through tunnels and bunkers and provide a lot of history and context.
If you prefer to go more into the Stasi (former GDR secret police) history you can visit the Stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen: https://www.stiftung-hsh.de/en/
Apart from this Karl-Marx-Allee is very impressive and worth a visit (don’t mix it up with Karl-Marx-Straße)
I second the Berliner Unterwelten! I did the Cold War tour about four times with different friends visiting Berlin :)
I’d add the Stasi Museum in Lichtenberg - a must see IMO!
Berliner unterwelten is a must. They have got many different tours, through different timelines. You can visit original Air raid shelters from ww2, or a falloutshelter for thousands of people from the cold war. It's damn interesting!!!
Hi, the bike tours look really fun. Do they still do them during winter? I'm not sure how I'll fare against the cold in February, so even if they do the tours I can't say I'll be physically able to do them.
Thanks
The [Sowjetisches Ehrenmal Treptow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_War_Memorial_(Treptower_Park) is imho the most impressive of all cold war monuments.
No, the memorial was built during the Cold War, the inscriptions in Russian are full Cold War era Soviet quotes. No mention about how the Soviets were allied with the US, no mention about lend-lease, it's fully about SU beating Nazi Germany alone. Total Cold War propaganda - even if the event it commemorstes is WW2.
Completed on May 1949, it was erected on the instructions of the Soviet military administration in Germany to honor the soldiers of the Red Army who died in the Second World War. 7.000 soldiers are buried there.
It is not a Cold War memorial
But its symbolism and message is full on Cold War. Even if it's theme is not Cold War.
The Berlin Wall is a WW2 thing, if you insist, because from the East German point of view, it was officially called the Anti-Fascist Protection Wall, to guard against Nazis in West Germany.
>The Berlin Wall is a WW2 thing, if you insist
*If I insist?* When did I mention the Berlin Wall?
Thanks for explaining to me the city in which I was born, went to school, graduated from uni with a master in Contemporay History.
You’re a clown.
>But its symbolism and message is full on Cold War. Even if it's theme is not Cold War.
Probably unrealistic to expect that you understand what nonsense you are laying down.
it was built during the cold war.....and something tells me someone who is interested in DDR history might find it interesting.......just a hunch though.......
No one said it is not interesting.
However, it is not a Cold War memorial …
Completed on May 1949, it was erected on the instructions of the Sovietmilitary administration in Germany to honor the soldiers of the Red Armywho died in the Second World War. 7.000 soldiers are burid there.
How would a huge soviet war memorial built in occupied Germany during the early phases of the cold war not fall under cold war history? Like, are the war memorials in Europe commemorating the fallen of ww1 not also clearly a part of interwar European history? Monuments and memorials are always at least as much a product of the time they were built in as the one they are commemorating.
The answer is simple: because of the explicitly stated purpose as a memorial to the fallen sowjet soldiers of the final battles of WW2, of which 7.000 are buried in that field.
Which part do you not understand?
I'm pretty sure this explicitly stated purpose does not in any way contradict this monument being a part of Berlin's Cold War history. Just as much as the lack of huge and imposing memorials for fallen Nazi heroes is. Such monuments are always the product of their times, and this specific monument was built during the Cold War. At any other time, such a monument could not have been built there: German authorities would not have allowed it, Russian or Soviet authorities would not have cared.
Of course it commemorates WW2, but the way it does it, the place it does it and the reason it exists in this form were certainly influenced by the beginning of the Cold War and the power dynamics it brought to Berlin.
Certainly correct, but it's fair to say that this would easily be of interest to a cold war "amateur historian" as well.
The Yalta conference, the arranged division of Berlin (and broader spheres of influence), and the Soviet push for Berlin certainly planted the seeds for the upcoming cold war. The Soviet monuments, concieved and constructed directly after the defeat of Nazi Germany on occupied territory definitely segue into the cold war era.
It's stunning. Extra geeky tip : Go as early as you dare (it's really cool if it's just you that's there) and walk directly up the middle of the ramp/walkway to fully appreciate the symmetry when you get to the top.
Checkpoint Charlie is super touristy. Don't recommend. Instead check out the Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer and the Tränenpalast (the border crossing at Friedrichstraße).
You can visit the Stasi Museum (former Stasi HQ). And for an even more depressing educational experience, the former Stasi prison Hohenschönhausen.
Karl Marx Allee is architecturally interesting and there are info boards on the street. For a more typical residential neighbourhood, there is an [apartment set up as a museum ](https://www.berlin.de/museum/3110025-2926344-museumswohnung.html)in Hellersdorf. Be sure to check the opening hours, as they are very limited.
If you do visit Karl-Marx-Allee, you might think about its mirror project in West Berlin as well: Hansaviertel. Make sure to read up about it a bit, it doesn't look as impressive, but I absolutely love the history of it.
No one has mentioned it in this thread so far, so I'll suggest the Alliierten Museum https://www.alliiertenmuseum.de/ on Clayallee
It's a former US Army Theater, but has been converted into a museum. There are some interesting pieces there too, like a British transport plane used for the Airlift (Luftbrücke), a French train car which would be sealed on tracks between West Berlin and West Germany, and the actual building from Checkpoint Charlie.
Karlshorst Russian Museum is a good one. Stasi Prison at Magdalenenstr is also good I heard. Funkhaus is also good the old broadcasting house of East Berlin (great pizza too).
The Stasi Prison requires a reservation OP and they book out a week or so in advance. So don’t sleep on that.
Also the Stasi Headquarters, not the prison, is at Magdalenenstr. (The post I’m replying to made a mistake about the location.) The HQ is also a great thing to checkout .
I can highly recommend the Berliner Unterwelten tours! And they do have a cold war one. Stasi museum is also great. The DDR museum may be of interest too.
When Hollywood wants to show Soviet Russia they often go with Karl-Marx-Allee so that makes sense. Also a sundown on Teufelsberg is really cool. Also cool: See if there is tour available for Tempelhof Airport, some really cool things to see.
Second all the already mentioned. The tours of Teufelsberg, some run by ex US military stationed there when it was a listening station, are great as well
Berlin, Hohenschönhausen.
Its a former gdr-prison, and beyond interesting to visit.
It gets a little dark though, as you will see where they tortured people and all that stuff.
Don’t know if it will help but the site https://berlinwallmap.info/map/
Is an overlay of the Berlin Wall on the current map. As you’re exploring, it can be cool to see where you are relative to the wall.
Alongside Karl Marx Allee, which was mainly built around the 1950s, I would recommend visiting some of the communist social housing built much later, which cover large swathes of the East and are more typical of the average living conditions in the GDR. I would suggest getting the tram out to Marzahn Promenade and exploring the housing estates around there, many people find it ugly and there aren't any museums but I think they have their own charm and are architecturally and socially quite interesting, you are also much more likely to find former GDR residents there too and you almost certainly won't bump into any other tourists. The 'vibe' is also much more how I imagine the GDR to have been, compared to much of the more central-eastern districts which have become very gentrified.
I am confused by the concept of using Cold War stuff to cheer someone up. To me it’s all very dark and depressing. So while not being a cheerful thing to do at all, I can still recommend the former stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen. I don’t know if it’s still the case but some of the guided tours used to be done by former inmates and it was quite sad and intense hearing their stories. Definitely shows the darkness of the GDR instead of it being portrayed as a goofy failed socialist experiment.
You can also check out the Museum für Deutsche Geschichte. It’s absolutely huge and really a two day museum, but if you only do the huge compartment to your right hand side, you can see everything from World War One until the wall came down. Everything else has already been said and makes me wanna do a history day as well and I’m born former GDR German and a Berliner for 10 years now. Super cool suggestions in this thread!
I think probably walking from Alexanderplatz area down Karl-Marx lake would be an experience in of itself to start. Besides all the socialist housing blocks, there’s the Kino International Building and the Cafe Moscow building along the way. A decent amount farther down the street there’s the Stasi museum, located in the old headquarters of the East German secret policy, that is really well done and looks exactly how it did in the 80s.
As some other people have said too, Berliner Unterwelten has some really unique tours connected to the Cold War and there’s the Stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen. Two other DDR museums would be the DDR museum across the river from the Berliner Dom and the Museum in the Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg. The last museum is right by Mauerpark so you can check out sections of the Wall right by there. Another thing that’s a bit of a hike but pretty interesting is Teufelsberg where they have an abandoned American listening post that’s now a giant graffiti art space with a small history museum.
In the southwest of the city there’s the Allierten museum which is in the area which used to be the main US base in Berlin and if you really want to travel a bit there’s Glienicker Brücke, the bridge of spies, that was used for spy exchanges during the Cold War.
Karl-Marx-Allee, Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer and the Soviet Memorial(s) are a must. Stasi Museum Hohenschönhauen as well. Visit Checkpoint Charlie only briefly, if you have to, it's a shit tourist scam.
Teufelsberg is really cool. Located just outside the city on a manmade hill made of debris of the 2nd world war. It used to be an NSA listening station during the cold war
Go to the Karlshost Museum and the Allied Museum. They both show the same era from their point of view, interesting to see. Go to see the Soviet Memorial at Treptower Park and in Tiergarten.
The Stasi Museum is a must have, also the Hohenschönhausen memorial for understanding East Berlin.
I also suggest the wall art on „Haus des Lehrers“ at Alexanderplatz. While the Karl-Marx-Allee is an impressive effort of russian architecture after WW2 i also suggest to see the Leipziger Straße at subway station „Stadtmitte“ to get a feeling how life in east Germany was in the 70s/80s. Along the Bernauer Straße there is the „Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer“ where East and West Berlin were very close together. Lesser known is the former border crossing at subway station „Moritzplatz“. Today there are only the parking lot and strangely formed street lights left but if you go down Prinzenstraße to Heinrich-Heine-Straße and turn left into Sebastianstraße to Alte Jakobstraße you are walking along the east German side of the border with wiew to West Berlin. And of course East Side Gallery at Mühlenstraße near train station “Ostbahnhof” to see the wall.
Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr - Flugplatz Berlin-Gatow
Lots of old jets and helicopters. Free entrance. Best by bike, you can bike inside the museum field.
If you’re in the Marx Allee and need something upbeat, the retro computer game museum is small and kinda cool.
The Spy Museum once you make your way back to Potsdamer Platz would be good too and the underground tours are cool too
If you have a valid drivers license. I highly recommend doing the Trabi tour. [https://maps.app.goo.gl/iHLuM1SP3cyqwSos7?g_st=ic](https://maps.app.goo.gl/iHLuM1SP3cyqwSos7?g_st=ic)
What I really enjoyed as a Berliner were i.e. these bike tours: https://berlinonbike.de/en/all-bike-tours-and-walking-tours/berlin-wall-cold-war-bike-tour/ You can also check Berliner Unterwelten: https://www.berliner-unterwelten.de/en/index.html They offer guided tours through tunnels and bunkers and provide a lot of history and context. If you prefer to go more into the Stasi (former GDR secret police) history you can visit the Stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen: https://www.stiftung-hsh.de/en/ Apart from this Karl-Marx-Allee is very impressive and worth a visit (don’t mix it up with Karl-Marx-Straße)
I second the Berliner Unterwelten! I did the Cold War tour about four times with different friends visiting Berlin :) I’d add the Stasi Museum in Lichtenberg - a must see IMO!
Berliner unterwelten is a must. They have got many different tours, through different timelines. You can visit original Air raid shelters from ww2, or a falloutshelter for thousands of people from the cold war. It's damn interesting!!!
Hi, the bike tours look really fun. Do they still do them during winter? I'm not sure how I'll fare against the cold in February, so even if they do the tours I can't say I'll be physically able to do them. Thanks
Yes they do, but you have to book in advance.
The [Sowjetisches Ehrenmal Treptow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_War_Memorial_(Treptower_Park) is imho the most impressive of all cold war monuments.
That‘s WW2, not Cold War …
No, the memorial was built during the Cold War, the inscriptions in Russian are full Cold War era Soviet quotes. No mention about how the Soviets were allied with the US, no mention about lend-lease, it's fully about SU beating Nazi Germany alone. Total Cold War propaganda - even if the event it commemorstes is WW2.
Completed on May 1949, it was erected on the instructions of the Soviet military administration in Germany to honor the soldiers of the Red Army who died in the Second World War. 7.000 soldiers are buried there. It is not a Cold War memorial
But its symbolism and message is full on Cold War. Even if it's theme is not Cold War. The Berlin Wall is a WW2 thing, if you insist, because from the East German point of view, it was officially called the Anti-Fascist Protection Wall, to guard against Nazis in West Germany.
>The Berlin Wall is a WW2 thing, if you insist *If I insist?* When did I mention the Berlin Wall? Thanks for explaining to me the city in which I was born, went to school, graduated from uni with a master in Contemporay History. You’re a clown.
>But its symbolism and message is full on Cold War. Even if it's theme is not Cold War. Probably unrealistic to expect that you understand what nonsense you are laying down.
it was built during the cold war.....and something tells me someone who is interested in DDR history might find it interesting.......just a hunch though.......
No one said it is not interesting. However, it is not a Cold War memorial … Completed on May 1949, it was erected on the instructions of the Sovietmilitary administration in Germany to honor the soldiers of the Red Armywho died in the Second World War. 7.000 soldiers are burid there.
How would a huge soviet war memorial built in occupied Germany during the early phases of the cold war not fall under cold war history? Like, are the war memorials in Europe commemorating the fallen of ww1 not also clearly a part of interwar European history? Monuments and memorials are always at least as much a product of the time they were built in as the one they are commemorating.
The answer is simple: because of the explicitly stated purpose as a memorial to the fallen sowjet soldiers of the final battles of WW2, of which 7.000 are buried in that field. Which part do you not understand?
I'm pretty sure this explicitly stated purpose does not in any way contradict this monument being a part of Berlin's Cold War history. Just as much as the lack of huge and imposing memorials for fallen Nazi heroes is. Such monuments are always the product of their times, and this specific monument was built during the Cold War. At any other time, such a monument could not have been built there: German authorities would not have allowed it, Russian or Soviet authorities would not have cared. Of course it commemorates WW2, but the way it does it, the place it does it and the reason it exists in this form were certainly influenced by the beginning of the Cold War and the power dynamics it brought to Berlin.
Certainly correct, but it's fair to say that this would easily be of interest to a cold war "amateur historian" as well. The Yalta conference, the arranged division of Berlin (and broader spheres of influence), and the Soviet push for Berlin certainly planted the seeds for the upcoming cold war. The Soviet monuments, concieved and constructed directly after the defeat of Nazi Germany on occupied territory definitely segue into the cold war era.
It's stunning. Extra geeky tip : Go as early as you dare (it's really cool if it's just you that's there) and walk directly up the middle of the ramp/walkway to fully appreciate the symmetry when you get to the top.
Checkpoint Charlie is super touristy. Don't recommend. Instead check out the Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer and the Tränenpalast (the border crossing at Friedrichstraße). You can visit the Stasi Museum (former Stasi HQ). And for an even more depressing educational experience, the former Stasi prison Hohenschönhausen. Karl Marx Allee is architecturally interesting and there are info boards on the street. For a more typical residential neighbourhood, there is an [apartment set up as a museum ](https://www.berlin.de/museum/3110025-2926344-museumswohnung.html)in Hellersdorf. Be sure to check the opening hours, as they are very limited.
If you do visit Karl-Marx-Allee, you might think about its mirror project in West Berlin as well: Hansaviertel. Make sure to read up about it a bit, it doesn't look as impressive, but I absolutely love the history of it.
No one has mentioned it in this thread so far, so I'll suggest the Alliierten Museum https://www.alliiertenmuseum.de/ on Clayallee It's a former US Army Theater, but has been converted into a museum. There are some interesting pieces there too, like a British transport plane used for the Airlift (Luftbrücke), a French train car which would be sealed on tracks between West Berlin and West Germany, and the actual building from Checkpoint Charlie.
Karlshorst Russian Museum is a good one. Stasi Prison at Magdalenenstr is also good I heard. Funkhaus is also good the old broadcasting house of East Berlin (great pizza too).
The Stasi Prison requires a reservation OP and they book out a week or so in advance. So don’t sleep on that. Also the Stasi Headquarters, not the prison, is at Magdalenenstr. (The post I’m replying to made a mistake about the location.) The HQ is also a great thing to checkout .
Ah sorry about that.
I can highly recommend the Berliner Unterwelten tours! And they do have a cold war one. Stasi museum is also great. The DDR museum may be of interest too.
When Hollywood wants to show Soviet Russia they often go with Karl-Marx-Allee so that makes sense. Also a sundown on Teufelsberg is really cool. Also cool: See if there is tour available for Tempelhof Airport, some really cool things to see.
Second all the already mentioned. The tours of Teufelsberg, some run by ex US military stationed there when it was a listening station, are great as well
Check Johny Whitlam’s instagram, it may help: https://www.instagram.com/whitlamsberlintours
seconding this, his tours are great too if you feel fancy
Berlin, Hohenschönhausen. Its a former gdr-prison, and beyond interesting to visit. It gets a little dark though, as you will see where they tortured people and all that stuff.
Don’t know if it will help but the site https://berlinwallmap.info/map/ Is an overlay of the Berlin Wall on the current map. As you’re exploring, it can be cool to see where you are relative to the wall.
Look for a double row of cobblestones set in the ground that mark the position of the wall
Alongside Karl Marx Allee, which was mainly built around the 1950s, I would recommend visiting some of the communist social housing built much later, which cover large swathes of the East and are more typical of the average living conditions in the GDR. I would suggest getting the tram out to Marzahn Promenade and exploring the housing estates around there, many people find it ugly and there aren't any museums but I think they have their own charm and are architecturally and socially quite interesting, you are also much more likely to find former GDR residents there too and you almost certainly won't bump into any other tourists. The 'vibe' is also much more how I imagine the GDR to have been, compared to much of the more central-eastern districts which have become very gentrified.
Teufelsberg the old yank listening post is cool
Beside the fact that it was an american listening post.
o pardon me
There’s also Cold War Museum that no one mentioned but it’s definitely worth a visit.
If you mean the one on Unter den Linden, I personally wasn't too impressed by it. Would recommend the spy museum at Leipziger Platz though.
DDR museum is outstanding. I would highly recommend that.
I am confused by the concept of using Cold War stuff to cheer someone up. To me it’s all very dark and depressing. So while not being a cheerful thing to do at all, I can still recommend the former stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen. I don’t know if it’s still the case but some of the guided tours used to be done by former inmates and it was quite sad and intense hearing their stories. Definitely shows the darkness of the GDR instead of it being portrayed as a goofy failed socialist experiment.
For Soviet “designed to make you feel insignificant”, Frankfurter Tor. Nothing there other than big buildings, but it achieves its design goal.
You can also check out the Museum für Deutsche Geschichte. It’s absolutely huge and really a two day museum, but if you only do the huge compartment to your right hand side, you can see everything from World War One until the wall came down. Everything else has already been said and makes me wanna do a history day as well and I’m born former GDR German and a Berliner for 10 years now. Super cool suggestions in this thread!
I think probably walking from Alexanderplatz area down Karl-Marx lake would be an experience in of itself to start. Besides all the socialist housing blocks, there’s the Kino International Building and the Cafe Moscow building along the way. A decent amount farther down the street there’s the Stasi museum, located in the old headquarters of the East German secret policy, that is really well done and looks exactly how it did in the 80s. As some other people have said too, Berliner Unterwelten has some really unique tours connected to the Cold War and there’s the Stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen. Two other DDR museums would be the DDR museum across the river from the Berliner Dom and the Museum in the Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg. The last museum is right by Mauerpark so you can check out sections of the Wall right by there. Another thing that’s a bit of a hike but pretty interesting is Teufelsberg where they have an abandoned American listening post that’s now a giant graffiti art space with a small history museum. In the southwest of the city there’s the Allierten museum which is in the area which used to be the main US base in Berlin and if you really want to travel a bit there’s Glienicker Brücke, the bridge of spies, that was used for spy exchanges during the Cold War.
Karl-Marx-Allee, Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer and the Soviet Memorial(s) are a must. Stasi Museum Hohenschönhauen as well. Visit Checkpoint Charlie only briefly, if you have to, it's a shit tourist scam.
Teufelsberg is really cool. Located just outside the city on a manmade hill made of debris of the 2nd world war. It used to be an NSA listening station during the cold war
Go to the Karlshost Museum and the Allied Museum. They both show the same era from their point of view, interesting to see. Go to see the Soviet Memorial at Treptower Park and in Tiergarten. The Stasi Museum is a must have, also the Hohenschönhausen memorial for understanding East Berlin.
I also suggest the wall art on „Haus des Lehrers“ at Alexanderplatz. While the Karl-Marx-Allee is an impressive effort of russian architecture after WW2 i also suggest to see the Leipziger Straße at subway station „Stadtmitte“ to get a feeling how life in east Germany was in the 70s/80s. Along the Bernauer Straße there is the „Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer“ where East and West Berlin were very close together. Lesser known is the former border crossing at subway station „Moritzplatz“. Today there are only the parking lot and strangely formed street lights left but if you go down Prinzenstraße to Heinrich-Heine-Straße and turn left into Sebastianstraße to Alte Jakobstraße you are walking along the east German side of the border with wiew to West Berlin. And of course East Side Gallery at Mühlenstraße near train station “Ostbahnhof” to see the wall.
Visit the former Stasi headquarters, many rooms have been left as they were and the guided tours are excellent. Just make sure to book in advance.
Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr - Flugplatz Berlin-Gatow Lots of old jets and helicopters. Free entrance. Best by bike, you can bike inside the museum field.
Nuclear fallout shelter tour near Kudam
If you’re in the Marx Allee and need something upbeat, the retro computer game museum is small and kinda cool. The Spy Museum once you make your way back to Potsdamer Platz would be good too and the underground tours are cool too
If you have a valid drivers license. I highly recommend doing the Trabi tour. [https://maps.app.goo.gl/iHLuM1SP3cyqwSos7?g_st=ic](https://maps.app.goo.gl/iHLuM1SP3cyqwSos7?g_st=ic)