Berlin Wall Audio Walking Tour
Follow the old border from the white crosses behind the Reichstag past the Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie to where Schabowski opened the Wall.
3.5 km walk49 min walking7 stopsFrom White Crosses by the Reichstag to Schabowski's Press Conference Site14 min of storiesEnglish
$15.99
- 7 stops and 14 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
Hear stop 1
30 seconds of the real narration
30 seconds of the real narration
Plays in the free Walk With Me app on iPhone and Android.
The story in order
- 15 June 1961Wall remnant, Niederkirchnerstraße
At a press conference in the House of Ministries, a journalist asks Walter Ulbricht about a border at the Brandenburg Gate; he replies that nobody intends to build a wall. - 13 and 14 August 1961Brandenburg Gate
East German combat groups close off the Gate; after one more day as a crossing it is blocked completely, for the next twenty-eight years. - 22 to 28 October 1961Checkpoint Charlie
An American diplomat on his way to the theater is asked for his papers; days later American and Soviet tanks face each other here for sixteen hours. - 17 August 1962Peter Fechter Memorial
Peter Fechter, eighteen, is shot climbing the Wall and lies in the border strip for about fifty minutes before East German guards carry him away. - 12 June 1987Brandenburg Gate
Ronald Reagan speaks on the western side of the Gate and calls on Gorbachev to tear down the wall. - 9 November 1989Schabowski's Press Conference Site
Günter Schabowski reads out a new travel rule on live television and says it applies at once; late that evening, the officers at Bornholmer Strasse give up checking and let the crowds through. - 12 November 1989Wall segments at Potsdamer Platz
A new crossing opens on the square at eight in the morning, and that afternoon the order to shoot is announced as abolished.
About this tour
The Wall is mostly gone, and that is exactly why it is worth walking. On foot you follow a line that is easy to miss, a strip of pavement here, a row of slabs there, and realize how close everything was: the Reichstag to the Gate, the checkpoint to the place where Peter Fechter lay. Walking it in order turns the scattered markers back into one story with a beginning and an end. When you're ready for company, open the Walk With Me live map and see who else is out walking Berlin.
The route
3.5 km in walking order from White Crosses by the Reichstag to Schabowski's Press Conference Site. Stop 1 is free in the app.
- 1White Crosses by the ReichstagSeven white crosses on the Spree behind the Reichstag, where the river itself belonged to the East, and the names they carry.Free in the app
- 2Brandenburg GateThe gate shut inside the border zone for twenty-eight years, a famous presidential speech, and a careful look at what it really changed.
- 3Wall segments at Potsdamer PlatzGraffiti-covered slabs at the station entrance, on a square that lay empty for decades, and the days just after the border opened.
- 4Wall remnant, NiederkirchnerstraßeAbout two hundred meters of real Wall, scarred by souvenir hunters, facing the hall where East Germany's leader answered a question nobody had asked.
- 5Checkpoint CharlieThe copied booth and sign on Friedrichstrasse, and how a diplomat's night at the theater ended with tanks lined up across the street.
- 6Peter Fechter MemorialA steel column on Zimmerstrasse for an eighteen-year-old construction worker, and the long minutes both sides of the Wall stood watching.
- 7Schabowski's Press Conference SiteThe former East German press center on Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Strasse, a fumbled answer on live television, and who really opened the border that night.
A taste of the narration
You're on the bank of the Spree, behind the east side of the Reichstag building. In front of you is a row of seven white crosses, each with a name and a date of death.Stop 1, White Crosses by the Reichstag
Play the 30 seconds0:00 / 0:30 · the real narration
Before you go
- The walking takes about fifty minutes; with the stories, allow two hours.
- It is flat and paved all the way.
- The nearest stations to the start are Brandenburger Tor and Bundestag, both a few minutes away.
- The walk ends right by the U2 station Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Straße, with Stadtmitte nearby.
- Checkpoint Charlie has costumed actors posing for photos; you don't need them for this story.
Toilets and water
4 toilets near the route, 3 free3 drinking fountains
More walks in Berlin
| Tour | Walk | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Berlin 1945 Fall of the City Walk | 5.1 km · 1 h 10 | $16.99 |
| Berlin Bernauer Strasse Wall Walk | 4 km · 54 min | $15.99 |
| Berlin Cold War Walking Tour | 2.7 km · 37 min | $7.99 |
| Berlin Mitte Walking Tour | 3.9 km · 55 min | $9.99 |
Before you walk Berlin
Our Berlin city guideWhat's shut on which day, free toilets and water, what's worth it and what it costs.
Photos: Beek100 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.