Alexanderplatz
Alexanderplatz is the large public square in former East Berlin, dominated by the Fernsehturm (TV Tower), the World Clock, and the Galeria department store. Free to walk through.
Street in Berlin
Bernauer Strasse
Bernauer Strasse is the street where the Berlin Wall divided neighbors, families, and apartment buildings overnight on August 13, 1961. Free to walk. The Berlin Wall Memorial is on this street, but the entire length of Bernauer Strasse tells the story through preserved wall sections, escaped tunnel sites, memorial markers for people who died trying to cross, and the Chapel of Reconciliation (built on the site of a church the East German government demolished in the death strip). Budget travelers walk the full length and understand the Wall not as a tourist attraction but as a wound in a city.
Practical
Before you go
- Address
- Bernauer Straße, 13355 Berlin
- Good to know
Nearby
More in Berlin
Other places worth the walk, and what each one costs.
Bebelplatz
Bebelplatz is the square on Unter den Linden where the Nazi book burning of May 1933 took place. Free.
Berlin Cathedral
The Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom) is the largest church in Berlin, a baroque revival building on Museum Island with a green copper dome. Entry is paid at a modest price and includes access to the dome walkway with views over the Lustgarten, the Spree, and the TV Tower.
Berlin Wall Memorial
The Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse is the central memorial site of German division, with a preserved section of the Wall, the death strip, a watchtower, and an open-air exhibition documenting escape attempts and the lives disrupted by the border. Free.
Boxhagener Platz
Boxhagener Platz is a neighborhood square in Friedrichshain with a Saturday food market and a Sunday flea market. Free to browse.
Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate is the symbol of Berlin and of German reunification, an 18th-century neoclassical triumphal arch at the western end of Unter den Linden. Free, always accessible, and floodlit at night.
Working out what Berlin costs?
The whole of Berlin