Berlin 1945 Fall of the City Audio Walking Tour
Follow the last days of April and May 1945 from the Anhalter Bahnhof ruin past the Gestapo site and Brandenburg Gate to the Moltke Bridge and the Reichstag.
- 7 stops and 15 minutes of stories, told as you reach each place
- The intro and stop 1 are free in the app: try before you buy
- Download before you go; the audio plays without signal (the street map needs a connection)
- Walking with friends? Pick 1 to 10 seats; everyone hears each stop on their own phone, at the same moment
30 seconds of the real narration
Plays in the free Walk With Me app on iPhone and Android.
The story in order
- 23 to 24 April 1945Topography of Terror
With Soviet troops closing in, most prisoners still held in the Gestapo's house prison are shot on a ruined lot nearby; the date comes from one detailed account. - 28 to 29 April 1945Moltke Bridge
Soviet infantry and tanks fight their way over the fortified bridge from Moabit after a demolition that only half worked. - 30 April 1945Führerbunker Site
Hitler kills himself in the bunker under this ground; his death frees his officers from their oath and opens the way to surrender. - 30 April 1945Reichstag
Red Army soldiers storm the Reichstag and get a red flag inside late that night; who carried the first one is still disputed. - 1 or 2 May 1945Anhalter Bahnhof Ruin
The S-Bahn tunnel under the Landwehr canal is blown up and floods; sources differ on the day, on who set the charges and on how many died. - 2 May 1945Führerbunker Site
General Weidling writes out the surrender order at Soviet headquarters in Tempelhof, and by afternoon the Berlin garrison has laid down its arms. - 11 November 1945Soviet War Memorial
Six months after the battle, the Soviet memorial is unveiled, with about 2,500 soldiers buried behind it.
About this tour
On a map the battle for the center of Berlin looks enormous. On foot you see how small it was: the bunker, the Gate and the Reichstag are minutes apart, and the cemetery sits between them. Walking it in order lets the ordinary places tell the story, a car park, a bridge, a broken stone griffin. If you'd like company on the way, open the Walk With Me live map to find other people out walking Berlin.
The route
5.1 km in walking order from Anhalter Bahnhof Ruin to Reichstag. Stop 1 is free in the app.
- 1Anhalter Bahnhof RuinA lone portico where a great rail terminus once stood, a crammed shelter nearby, and a flooded tunnel nobody agrees about.Free in the app
- 2Topography of TerrorExcavated cellar walls where the Gestapo and SS had their headquarters, and what happened to its prisoners as the front closed in.
- 3Führerbunker SiteA car park and an information board above the bunker where the regime ended, and why one death mattered for the city's surrender.
- 4Brandenburg GateThe gate with its four-horse chariot on top, at the center of the last fighting, and how little of the original survived.
- 5Soviet War MemorialA Soviet soldier on a tall column, flanked by tanks and backed by graves, where the battle's toll is put into numbers.
- 6Moltke BridgeA Spree bridge with a broken stone griffin on its parapet, and the crossing that put the Reichstag within reach.
- 7ReichstagThe parliament stormed on the last night of April, an old argument over the first flag, and what the famous photograph really shows.
Before you go
The walking takes a little over an hour; with the stories, allow two to two and a half. It is flat and paved all the way, with one shaded stretch along the edge of the Tiergarten park. Start at Anhalter Bahnhof station on the S-Bahn, right beside the ruin. The walk ends at the Reichstag, close to Bundestag station on the U5 and to Brandenburger Tor station. The Topography of Terror documentation center is free; check its opening hours before you go. Visiting the inside of the Reichstag needs advance registration on the Bundestag website, so book a guided tour ahead if you want to see the soldiers' writing on the walls; a dome-only visit doesn't include it. The Soviet memorial is a cemetery, so please treat it as one.
Questions
How long does it really take?
1 h 10 of walking plus 15 minutes of stories, so plan for about 1 h 25 with stops.
Can I see the soldiers' writing inside the Reichstag?
Yes, on a guided tour booked ahead on the Bundestag website. A visit to the dome alone does not take you past the walls where Soviet soldiers wrote in 1945.
Is anything of the bunker left to see?
No. The site is a car park among apartment blocks, with an information board in German and English at the corner, put up in 2006 to counter myths about the place.
Nothing else to pay
Cheaper in a bundle
Before you walk Berlin
Photos: Tonythepixel / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.