漏 visitBerlin, Foto: Dagmar Schwelle
Berlin Wall Memorial: The course of the Wall is partially recreated by rods of rusting steel.
漏 visitBerlin, Foto: Günter Steffen
Chapel of Reconciliation at the Berlin Wall Memorial.
漏 Stiftung Berliner Mauer/G. Simons
View of the exhibition at the Berlin Wall Memorial.
漏 dpa
Roses are stuck in the Hinterlandmauer at the Berlin Wall Memorial.
漏 dpa
Aerial photo: The Berlin Wall Memorial on the former death strip on Bernauer Straße.
One of the most important memorials to the Berlin Wall stretches along Bernauer Straße. The Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer (Berlin Wall Memorial) is dedicated to documenting the history of Berlin from the construction to the fall of the Wall.
The official memorial to the Wall era is located on Bernauer Straße. The street, which marked the border between Wedding (West) and Mitte (East), was the scene of tragic escapes. People from sealed-off East Berlin threw themselves out of the windows of their houses to reach the free West. 37 years after the Wall was built, on August 13, 1998, Berlin inaugurated the Wall memorial on the corner of Ackerstraße.
The Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer (Berlin Wall Memorial) deliberately avoids dramatic effects and instead aims to be a place of contemplation. Based on an idea by Sven and Claudia Kohlhoff, an 80-metre section of borderland was enclosed by two six-metre-high steel walls. Slits in these walls allow a view into the death strip.
The Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer includes a documentation center and the Chapel of Reconciliation, which was built on the site where the GDR had a church blown up in 1985 to secure the border. The new visitor center on Bernauer Straße was inaugurated at the beginning of December 2009.
The exhibition area stretches over a length of 350 meters and covers one hectare. The area is part of a 1.3-kilometer memorial trail that connects original border installations and artistically designed memorial sites along Bernauer Straße.
Information panels are in German and English.
漏 David von Becker / Staatliche Museen von Berlin
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漏 dpa
History of the city of Berlin: eras, history of the districts, museums and monuments, National Socialism and the Berlin Wall. more
