The Berlin Wall in Film: The Best Movies and Series, Explained
From Cold War spy thrillers to Stasi dramas and Ostalgie comedies – a curated guide to the best films and TV series about the Berlin Wall and divided Berlin, with the real places behind them.
More...Hansa Studios
Hansa Studios, in the historic Meistersaal concert hall at Köthener Straße 38, stood right beside the Berlin Wall by Potsdamer Platz. Between 1976 and 1978 the building became the creative refuge of David Bowie and Iggy Pop: Bowie recorded much of “Heroes” (1977) here and produced Iggy Pop’s albums The Idiot and Lust for Life in the same rooms. The control room of the big studio looked out over the death strip, and the title track of “Heroes”, with its lovers kissing “by the Wall”, was inspired by that view. The 1910 hall is a protected monument and still works as a recording studio and event space today.
More...Bowie and Iggy Pop in West Berlin
How David Bowie and Iggy Pop made West Berlin their refuge from 1976 to 1978 – the Schöneberg flat at Hauptstraße 155, the Hansa Studios “Hall by the Wall” where Bowie recorded “Heroes” and Iggy cut Lust for Life, and where to trace their Berlin years today.
More...Crossing the Berlin Wall: Checkpoints and Border Crossings
For 28 years, crossing the Berlin Wall meant checkpoints, paperwork and the forced exchange of money – and for West Berliners, years when the gates were shut entirely. How the border crossings worked, the Passierscheinabkommen day-pass agreements, the Palace of Tears, and how to visit the crossing sites today.
More...Wings of Desire
Wim Wenders’ poetic masterpiece follows two angels watching over a still-divided West Berlin in 1987, one of whom longs to become human and fall in love.
More...The Promise
Margarethe von Trotta’s drama follows two young lovers separated on the night the Berlin Wall goes up in 1961, whose lives intertwine across the next 28 years until the fall.
More...The Quiller Memorandum
A laconic American agent is sent to 1960s West Berlin to infiltrate a neo-Nazi network, in a cerebral Cold War thriller scripted by Harold Pinter and filmed on location in the divided city.
More...
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