Staaken, on the west-most outskirts of West Berlin, was home to several different rail and road crossings during the cold war years. Albrechtshof rail crossing was closed in 1961 after possibly one of the most dramatic GDR escapes: East German engineer Harry Deterling crashed a whole train through the barriers towards Gartenstadt Staaken in West Berlin. A separate rail road border crossing was opened by the GDR in 1976, for rail transit to western Germany, and there was also a road crossing at Heerstraße. Nearby: Spandau War Memorial, Fort Haneburg
Staaken, on the west-most outskirts of West Berlin, was home to several different rail and road crossings during the cold war years. Albrechtshof rail crossing...
GDR town where 80% of the male population lost their jobs overnight when the Wall severed the commute to West Berlin. The S-Bahn link from...
West Berlin exclave of three farmsteads connected to the main city by a 4-metre-wide, 800-metre-long corridor. Named for its cold microclimate — up to 10°C...
Only surviving "first generation" (1961/62) wall segment, over 30 metres long. Original concrete slabs with hollow blocks and Y-shaped barbed wire deflectors. Shows three generations...
RAF Gatow in the British sector was one of the Berlin Airlift's three airfields, handling the British share of the lift while Sunderland flying boats...
An artificial hill built from 26 million cubic metres of World War II rubble in the Grunewald forest. The US National Security Agency built a...
One of the last surviving Berlin Wall watchtowers, this Führungsstelle (command post) was built in 1987 as the command centre of Border Security Regiment 38...
The Berlin Airlift's great construction feat: Tegel airport was built from nothing in around 90 days by 19,000 Berliners - more than 40 per cent...
The last checkpoint built before the Wall fell, opened in 1982. Served travellers heading to Scandinavia via Route 96. One of the last crossings to...
Protestant church walled off for 28 years during the division. Its bell tower was incorporated into the barrier wall. The church was visible from West...
The Allied checkpoint on the transit motorway between West Berlin and West Germany. All vehicles travelling the Autobahn corridor to Helmstedt passed through here, making...
A bridge spanning the Havel river, connecting Wannsee with the Brandenburg capital, Potsdam. Spies captured during the Cold War were often exchanged here, earning it...
GDR enclave accessible only via one surveilled bridge (Parkbrücke). Residents lived in near-total isolation — surrounded by West Berlin on three sides, connected to the...
Schöneberg Town Hall served as West Berlin's city hall from 1949 to 1991, after the historic Rotes Rathaus fell within the Soviet sector. It is...
Mass escape in March 1963. Eleven-year-old Detlef Aagaard, his parents, and ten others (13 in total) fled through a tunnel dug from beneath a living...