Berlin, the divided city: the back story

About Berlin, the divided city: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Berlin Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

For 28 years Berlin was a divided city. The Wall went up on 13 August 1961 and opened on the night of 9 November 1989; Germany was reunified on 3 October 1990. Today a double row of cobblestones traces much of its line through the centre, and its story is told at the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse and along the East Side Gallery on the Spree.

The Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate stood just inside the border strip for almost three decades. Since 1989 it has been the symbol of the reunited city, and Pariser Platz in front of it is once again a square of embassies, banks and the Hotel Adlon.

Bernauer Strasse

The Berlin Wall Memorial, run by the Berlin Wall Foundation, preserves a stretch of the border strip on Bernauer Strasse, with a watchtower, the remains of the Wall and an indoor exhibition, “1961 | 1989. The Berlin Wall”. Steel rods mark where the Wall once ran.

Start at the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse: it explains everything else you will see.

The East Side Gallery

On Mühlenstrasse in Friedrichshain, the longest surviving section of the Wall runs beside the Spree, painted by artists from around the world in 1990. The Berlin Wall Foundation looks after it today.

The city today

The government quarter on the Spree, the glass dome of the Reichstag building and the towers of Potsdamer Platz have filled the old border land. Unter den Linden runs once more from the Brandenburg Gate to Museum Island and the Humboldt Forum.

Our advice: walk the line of the Wall from the Brandenburg Gate to Potsdamer Platz, then take the S-Bahn to Nordbahnhof for Bernauer Strasse.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Berlin, the divided city: the back story before you go.