Berlin Wall Memorial Audio Guide

Berlin Wall Memorial: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to the Berlin Wall Memorial

   Welcome to the Berlin Wall Memorial, stretched along Bernauer Strasse in the heart of Berlin. This is the city's official memorial to the Wall era. It is dedicated to documenting the story of Berlin from the construction of the Wall to its fall. The memorial runs along both sides of the street. On one side you have the open-air exhibition, laid out on the former border strip, which lay on the East Berlin side. Across the road, on what used to be West Berlin territory, stand the Visitor Center and the Documentation Center, with its observation tower and a permanent exhibition on the history of the city's division. The street itself marked the line between two districts, Wedding in the West and Mitte in the East. That is why so many dramatic moments of the Wall's history happened right here. As you walk, notice the tone of the place. It deliberately avoids theatrical effects and aims to be somewhere for quiet contemplation. Let's begin with why this street was chosen.

2. 02

   A Street on the Border

   Bernauer Strasse became a focal point of postwar German history. The border between Wedding and Mitte ran along it, and the building of the Wall and its consequences for the people living in the divided city were especially dramatic here. In August 1961 the photographs that traveled around the world came from this very street. They showed a soldier of the East German state leaping over the border fence at the last minute. They also showed people throwing themselves out of their windows into sheets held out by West Berlin firefighters. For residents of sealed-off East Berlin, a window could suddenly become a way to reach the West. There were other attempts, too. Over the years, East Berliners dug numerous escape tunnels around Bernauer Strasse. Keep that in mind as you look along the line of the former border strip: beneath and around this ground, people were taking enormous risks.

3. 03

   Lives Lost Along the Strip

   Ten people died in the area around the memorial in connection with the border regime of East Germany, and all of these deaths occurred in the 1960s. Nine of them suffered fatal injuries while trying to cross the border grounds. Four were shot by border guards, and five died after jumping down from border houses on Bernauer Strasse. One of those stories is that of Rudolf Urban. On 19 August 1961, he slid down a rope from his apartment at Bernauer Strasse 1 and was seriously injured. He died a month later in the hospital. His biography is one of many that the memorial's work keeps in view, so that the numbers stay attached to real people. This is the heart of what the memorial is for. It commemorates the division of the city, and it commemorates the people who died because of it. Take a moment along the strip to let that settle before moving on.

4. 04

   From Church Ruins to Memorial

   The memorial grew out of the street's notoriety and the efforts of a few determined people. Its initiators included Peter Möbius, Helmut Trotnow, and Pastor Manfred Fischer of the Protestant Reconciliation Church. Shortly before the twenty-ninth anniversary of the Wall's construction, Fischer led the group in putting up a sign here. It addressed the so-called Wall peckers, the people chipping souvenirs from the concrete, and asked them not to peck at this piece of the Wall. It appealed for help in preserving an authentic and dignified memorial. The story is bound up with the demolition of the border. The first segments were knocked out of the Wall between Bernauer Strasse and Eberswalder Strasse on the night of 10 November 1989. Official demolition of the border fortifications began at the corner of Bernauer Strasse and Ackerstrasse in June 1990, and this is where the memorial stands today. It was inaugurated on 13 August 1998, 37 years after the Wall went up, on the corner of Ackerstrasse. It includes the Chapel of Reconciliation, built on the site where the East German authorities had a church blown up in 1985 to secure the border. The Visitor Center opened at the beginning of December 2009.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   The outdoor exhibition stretches over a length of 350 meters and covers one hectare. It is part of a trail of 1.3 kilometers that connects original border installations with artistically designed memorial sites along Bernauer Strasse. The open-air exhibition includes four themed stations with historical audio and visual material, so there is plenty to listen to as you walk. If you would like a wider view, climb the observation tower at the Documentation Center and look back over the former border strip. A digital tour guide also lets you explore the Bernauer Strasse site at your own pace. And the story continues underground. At the Nordbahnhof S-Bahn station, the exhibition Border and Ghost Stations in Divided Berlin shows how the Wall affected the city's transport system. Before you leave, look once more along the street and ask yourself which spot, on which side of the road, you would have stood on in 1961.