Citytrip Berlin, Germany
October 2013






Day 1 - part 1
Friday, October 25th


It is an early start Hr. 06:00 in the morning, heading for Schiphol airport. The flight to Berlin will take about an hour. The advantage of an early start is that you have the bigger part of that same day for checking out Berlin. Unfortunately the metro does not reach the airport. So, you have to take the bus 128 for a ten minute ride to the Kurt-Schumacher-Platz. From here you can take line U6 into the direction Alt-Mariendorf.

At the Leopoldplatz we change lines; we take the U9 into the direction of Rathaus Steglitz to the Zoologischer Garten (Bahnhof Zoo). The remainder of the trip we can walk; it′s only one station to the Wittenbergplatz. We walk into the direction of the Gedächtniskirchen and follow the Tauenzienstraße to the Wittenbergplatz. And that finishes the first leg of our journey.

We leave our luggage at the hotel and head of into town to have a look around. Our first objective is Checkpoint Charlie. Having purchased a day ticket for the subway at the airport, we can use the ticket up to Hr: 03:00 tonight. We take the subway to the Friedrichstraße and start our walk-about in Berlin here. Checkpoint Charlie (or "Checkpoint C") was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War period.

It became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of east and west. After the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc and the reunification of Germany, the building at Checkpoint Charlie became a tourist attraction. It is now located in the Allied Museum in the Dahlem neighborhood of Berlin.

From here on we follow the Zimmerstraße in which the former STASI building is located. This has now been converted into a museum. The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, MfS), commonly known as the Stasi, was the official state security service of the German Democratic Republic or GDR. It has been described as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies to ever have existed. Numerous Stasi officials were prosecuted for their crimes after 1990.

Walking straight ahead into the Niederkirchnerstraße, formerly Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, we see a piece of what seems to be the last remaining bit of the Berlin Wall. It is flanked by the Topography of Terror memorial and museum which includes a permanent exhibition that tells the worst of Nazism and its crimes.

This street is best known for having been the location of the headquarters of the Reich Main Security Office, SD, Gestapo and the SS in Nazi Germany. From May 1933 this building also served as the headquarters of the Gestapo, created by the order of Hermann Göring, where many political prisoners were tortured and executed. In December 1934, it also housed the headquarters of the Concentration Camps Inspectorate, which oversaw all the concentration camps. This is definitely worth a visit! At the end of the Niederkirchnerstraße we take a right turn into the Stresemannstraße that we follow all the way to the Potsdamerplatz.

Still going straight ahead we enter the Ebertstraße into the direction of the Brandenburger Tor. Halfway we come across the Holocaust Memorial. The idea for a Holocaust Memorial was first proposed in 1988 but the design for the monument wasn't approved until 1999. At that time, U.S. architect Peter Eisenman′s controversial design was chosen as a fitting tribute to the Jews that died before and during World War II as part of Hitler′s plan to exterminate them. Eisenman′s design is quite unique and has drawn both praise and criticism.

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Holocaust Memorial

Holocaust Memorial



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Museum of The Topography of Terror

Museum of
The Topography of Terror



Occupying about 205,000 square feet (19,000 square meters) of space near the Brandenburger Tor and just a short distance from where the ruins of Hitler′s bunker are buried, the Berlin Holocaust Memorial is made up of 2,711 gray stone slabs - so-called steles - that bear no markings, such as names or dates. Some are only ankle high while others tower over visitors. The paths that are shaped between the slabs undulate as well. Eisenman hoped to create a feeling of groundlessness and instability; a sense of disorientation.

Following the Ebertstraße we reach the impressive looking Brandenburger Tor; Berlins show piece! The Brandenburger Tor is a former city gate, rebuilt in the late 18th century as a neoclassical triumphal arch, and now one of the most well-known landmarks of Germany. It is located in the western part of the city centre of Berlin, at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. One block to the north stands the Reichstag building. The gate is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees, which formerly led directly to the city palace of the Prussian monarchs.

The Brandenburger Tor was not part of the old Berlin fortifications but one of 18 gates within the Berlin Customs Wall (German: Akzisemauer), erected in the 1730s, including the old fortified city and many of its then suburbs. The Gate was designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans, the Court Superintendent of Buildings, and built between 1788 and 1791, replacing the earlier simple guard houses siding the original gate in the Customs Wall. The Gate consists of twelve Doric columns, six to each side, forming five passageways. Citizens originally were allowed to use only the outermost two on each side.

On top the gate is the Quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses driven by Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory. Throughout its existence, the Brandenburg Gate was often a site for major historical events and is today considered a symbol of the tumultuous history of Europe and Germany, but also of European unity and peace.











and welcome!




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Berlin, Tegel Airport

Berlin, Tegel Airport



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Checkpoint Charlie - the West meets East

Checkpoint Charlie
West meets East



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The headquarters off the former STASI (secret police)

The headquarters off the
former STASI (secret police)



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TRABI WORLD - drive in a convoy through the city in an old Trabant

TRABI WORLD - drive in a convoy
through the city in an old Trabant


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A (fast) Police Trabant

A (fast) Police Trabant





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Remnanst of the Berlin Wall

Remnanst of the Berlin Wall



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The Reichstag

The Reichstag