Top Menu

  • en
  • de
Houses on Waldmüllerstrasse in Klein Glienicke - a former East German enclave separated from West Berlin by the Berlin Wall and only accessible with special permission

Klein Glienicke – An East German Enclave in West Berlin

With its grand villas, alpine chalet-style houses, waterside views, and cobbled streets, Klein Glienicke is a charming village, popular with day-trippers. But for 28 years this idyllic settlement on the Potsdam border was an East German enclave separated from West Berlin by the Berlin Wall and only accessible with special permission. The quirks of Klein […]

READ MORE
Berlin Airlift Memorial (Luftbrückedenkmal) on Platz der Luftbrücke, referred to by Berliners as the Hungerharke (Hunger Rake) or Hungerkralle (Hunger Claw) and in the background Tempelhof Airport

Berlin Airlift Memorial (Luftbrückendenkmal)

Looming over a small park on the Platz der Luftbrücke in Tempelhof, the Berlin Airlift Memorial (Luftbrückendenkmal) is dedicated to those who gave their lives to save the people of West Berlin during the Berlin Blockade. On 24 June 1948, Stalin closed off all road and rail routes to Berlin in an attempt to starve […]

READ MORE
rp_Brass-Rabbit-at-Kaninchenfeld-Berlin-1024x682.jpg

Kaninchenfeld – Berlin’s Brass Rabbit Field

The brass rabbits of Karla Sachse’s Kaninchenfeld (Rabbit Field) add a touch of colour and some much needed shine to an otherwise unremarkable stretch of the Chausseestraße in Berlin. The Kaninchenfeld is one of seven artworks selected from a host of competition entries to mark the locations of Cold War Berlin’s inner city border crossing […]

READ MORE
rp_17-June-Memorial-Berlin-by-Wolfgang-Rüppel-1024x682.jpg

17 June Memorial by Wolfgang Rüppel

The 17 June Memorial on Leipziger Strasse in Berlin recalls the events of a popular uprising of 1953 against the communist government in East Germany. Wolfgang Rüppel’s memorial, unveiled in 2000, is sunk into the floor in a square in front of the Bundesministerium der Finanzen (Federal Ministry of Finance), which was the Haus der […]

READ MORE
rp_Woman-Walks-Past-Bücherwald-Berlin-1024x682.jpg

Bücherwald – The Book Forest of Berlin

Strolling along Sredzkistrasse in Prenzlauer Berg near the corner with Kollwitzstrasse you may have a bit of a Sesame Street moment because ‘one of these trees is not like the others’.  The Bücherwald (book forest) isn’t in fact a tree at all.  It is a collection of five logs bolted together with shelves carved into […]

READ MORE
rp_Giant-Ampelmann-Statue-Berlin-Side-View-1024x682.jpg

Giant Ampelmann Statue

Germans* are almost obsessive about waiting for the Ampelmann (the traffic light man) to signal it’s safe to cross the road.  Pedestrians in Berlin spend years of their lives standing at empty crossings praying for the little green man with his purposeful stride and jaunty hat to appear, so I suppose it’s only natural that […]

READ MORE
rp_Car-Entry-at-Checkpoint-Alpha-1024x682.jpg

Checkpoint Alpha: The ABC of Berlin Checkpoints

To West Germans it was Kontrollpunkt Helmstedt, to East Germans, Grenzübergangsstelle Marienborn, but outside Germany, the inner German border crossing point was most commonly referred to by the name given to it by the Allied powers, Checkpoint Alpha. Note: While Checkpoint Alpha was only officially the name of the West German checkpoint at Helmstedt, for […]

READ MORE