Private Walking Tour: Berlin Wall, Cold War and Checkpoint Charlie
Description
This private walking tour brings you to the places, where famous events of the Cold War happened and history was written. On this tour you will also see original pieces of the Wall, one of the last remaining guard towers and Checkpoint Charlie. The tour starts at the Berlin Wall Documentation Center in the street "Bernauer Strasse", where many of the dramatic escape attempts took place, successful and tragic ones. You will ride one of the subways that were called "ghost trains" during the division of the city, so-called because of the gloomy atmosphere in the underground stations close to the wall. The tour also covers Checkpoint Charlie, the former military checkpoint and hot spot of the Cold War. This is the site where the fate of mankind was hanging by a thread in 1961 when US and Soviet tanks confronted each other.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Your tour guide will take you on a walk along the former "death strip" in Berlin's city center, as well as to the open-air documentation center with its authentic sites. The tour starts at the Berlin Wall Documentation Center north of downtown Berlin. Here, in "Bernauer Strasse", many of the dramatic escape attempts took place, successful and tragic ones. See, where famous events of the Cold War happened, like the young East German soldier jumping over the barbed wire or where people died after jumping out of the windows into the West because the front of their houses formed the Berlin Wall. Maps and an open-air exhibition will help you to understand what it meant to live in the divided Berlin.
You will ride on one of the subways that were called "ghost trains" during the division of the city. So-called because of the gloomy atmosphere in the underground stations close to the wall. Using one of those former ghost-lines we will reach the "Palace of Tears". See where Germans from West Berlin could travel to the East and visit their relatives. When they had to go back, they had to say goodbye to each other at this checkpoint. That is why this former checkpoint is called "Palace of Tears".
The tour also covers Checkpoint Charlie, the former military checkpoint and hot spot of the Cold War. This is the site where the fate of mankind was hanging by a thread in 1961 when US and Soviet tanks confronted each other. The tour ends at the Wall Museum which you may visit afterwards.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- PLEASE NOTE: the tour description and itinerary are for information purposes only and subject to changes - particularly to your personal preferences which you may express to your guide at the beginning of the tour.
- Governing law is German law. Jurisdiction is Berlin, Germany
Reviews(42)
Stefan was a knowledgeable and friendly guide and the tour itself was interesting and moving. A great history lesson!
Amazing time with Stefan He was so knowledgeable and passionate about Berlin’s history We have our family with 3 teenage boys and he kept their attention with a nice pace And perfect English too!
Elena is was an excellent guide. She was very knowledgeable and we felt like we learned a lot about the Berlin Wall and the Cold War. We are glad we took the tour.
Our guide, Elena, was excellent. It was a very informative tour and I would recommend Elana as a guide.
Our guide Tankred was very knowledgeable and answered our many questions especially from our 15 year old. We were very impressed with him and his ease of communication with a very serious subject of a divided Germany and communist occupation
We were expected by a nice working student who convinced us with his sympathetic nature to take a different path than planned. Hearing interesting and new things, we were surprised.
We had a fantastic tour with our guide Tankred. It was our first day in Berlin and the tour was a wonderful start to our time in the city. Tankred was so knowledgeable and answered all our questions and more. We not only chatted about the wall but many other parts of German history and culture. Great tour I would recommend to anybody spending time in Berlin.
Excellent. Great local guide with personal experience. Gave us a really good perspective of what life was like with the wall.
Excellent tour. Very in formative and our guide, Winfried, was very friendly and provided tremendous insight into the post WW2 era. Highly recommended tour.
It was a nice and very informative tour of the Berlin Wall. Found out many things we did not know. The guide Stefan was very friendly and really provided an excellent tour. He knows a lot about the history of the wall and everything related to it. Thank you for the fun morning.
