On 27 October 1961, about ten American and ten Soviet tanks stood roughly 100 metres apart at Checkpoint Charlie, guns loaded, for some seventeen hours. It was the only direct armoured confrontation between American and Soviet forces in the entire Cold War, and it happened at a crossing in the middle of Berlin.

On 9 November 2026, Berlin marks 37 years since the night the Wall opened. At 18:53 on 9 November 1989, Günter Schabowski read out new travel regulations at a press conference and, asked when they would take effect, answered “immediately, without delay.” Within hours, thousands of East Berliners streamed to the border crossings. The first to open was Bornholmer Strasse, where overwhelmed guards lifted the barrier just before midnight. This year, the anniversary falls inside the second Berlin Freedom Week (7-14 November 2026), a citywide festival of events on freedom, democracy and human rights. More than a hundred talks, tours, films, concerts and exhibitions fill the week, organised by a consortium including visitBerlin, the Robert Havemann Society and the Axel Springer Freedom Foundation, with Berlin’s Governing Mayor as patron. Not every event is about the Wall. We have picked out the ones that connect to the places and stories on our map.