Berlin Wall Bernauer Strasse Audio Walking Tour
Walk Bernauer Strasse from Ida Siekmann's window past Conrad Schumann's leap, Tunnel 57 and the Window of Remembrance to the Günter Litfin watchtower.
- 8 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
- 15 August 1961Conrad Schumann's Leap
At about four in the afternoon, while this corner is still only barbed wire, Conrad Schumann jumps across and a photographer catches him in the air. - 22 August 1961Ida Siekmann Memorial
Ida Siekmann jumps from her third-floor window toward the West Berlin sidewalk and dies on the way to hospital, the first refugee to lose her life at the Wall. - 24 August 1961Günter Litfin Memorial
Günter Litfin is shot trying to swim the Humboldthafen, less than a kilometer south: the first refugee killed by gunfire at the Wall. - 26 November 1961Wall through the Cemeteries
A photograph shows West Berliners leaving flowers at the sealed gate of St. Hedwig's cemetery, as near to their families' graves as they can get. - 3 and 4 October 1964Tunnel 57 Exit
Fifty-seven people crawl through a tunnel from a bakery cellar into a courtyard here; on the second night it is betrayed and a border sergeant, Egon Schultz, is killed. - January 1985Chapel of Reconciliation
East Germany blows up the Church of Reconciliation, stranded in the death strip since 1961; its tower falls on the 28th. - 9 November 2000Chapel of Reconciliation
A new chapel is consecrated on the old church's foundations, its earth walls mixed with brick from the church that was destroyed.
About this tour
The Berlin Wall makes sense on foot in a way it never does from a bus. On Bernauer Strasse you walk the actual line, past the window, the corner, the courtyard and the church, and you feel how close everything was: a single sidewalk, a few meters of wire, a street's width of earth. The memorial is free and outdoors. If you'd like company on the way, open the Walk With Me live map to find other people out walking Berlin.
The route
4 km in walking order from Ida Siekmann Memorial to Günter Litfin Memorial. Stop 1 is free in the app.
- 1Ida Siekmann MemorialA memorial column where a house on the border once stood, and the first of the Bernauer Strasse windows people jumped from.Free in the app
- 2Conrad Schumann's LeapA street corner with a giant photo on a blank wall, and the nineteen-year-old border policeman in one of the Cold War's best-known pictures.
- 3Tunnel 57 ExitA side street where a tunnel from a West Berlin bakery surfaced, and a death the East told its own way.
- 4Chapel of ReconciliationA small chapel of rammed earth on the foundations of a church left stranded in the death strip, with the old church's bells outside.
- 5Window of RemembranceA wall of small niches holding portraits of the people who died at the Wall, and the reason some niches stay empty.
- 6Nordbahnhof Ghost StationBeach volleyball courts beside a piece of the inner wall, on railway land, above a station where trains kept running but nobody got off.
- 7Wall through the CemeteriesThe gate of a French Reformed cemetery the border cut through, where Theodor Fontane lies, and West Berliners shut out from their family graves.
- 8Günter Litfin MemorialA square East German command post that a brother turned into a memorial, and an attempt to swim a harbor basin in August 1961.
Hear stop 1: Ida Siekmann Memorial
The first 30 seconds, exactly as you'll hear them on the street.
You're standing in the memorial strip, in front of the spot where the apartment house at Bernauer Strasse 48 used to stand. The house is gone. Look for the memorial column with her name.
Picture the street as it was in August 1961. The border had just been sealed. The houses on this side belonged to East Berlin, but the sidewalk below their windows was West Berlin. For some of the people inside, those windows looked like a way out.
Toilets and water on the way
4 public toilets (3 free) and 1 drinking fountains within 150 m of the route.
| Stop | Nearest toilet | Nearest water |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Ida Siekmann Memorial | 351 m | 112 m |
| 2. Conrad Schumann's Leap | 263 m | 246 m |
| 3. Tunnel 57 Exit | 318 m, free | 644 m |
| 4. Chapel of Reconciliation | 169 m, free | 758 m |
| 5. Window of Remembrance | 121 m, free | 665 m |
| 6. Nordbahnhof Ghost Station | 59 m | 524 m |
| 7. Wall through the Cemeteries | 302 m, free | 823 m |
| 8. Günter Litfin Memorial | 573 m, free | 1078 m |
The full map is in our Berlin guide. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nothing else to pay
Questions
How long does it really take?
54 min of walking plus 15 minutes of stories, so plan for about 1 h 09 with stops.
Can I go into the chapel and the watchtower?
Both keep limited hours, and the tower opens on summer weekends, so check before you go. Every story on the walk plays outside, so you miss nothing if they are shut.
Can I see where Tunnel 57 came up?
Only from the street. The courtyard behind Strelitzer Strasse 55 is private, so stay on the sidewalk; back on Bernauer Strasse, the tunnel routes are marked in the ground of the memorial strip.
Cheaper in a bundle
Photos: Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; Ansgar Koreng / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 de; Inhiber / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.