The Tränenpalast, or Palace of Tears, is a glass and steel pavilion with a distinctive curved roof located at Friedrichstraße station. Built in nineteen sixty-two, shortly after the construction of the Berlin Wall, it functioned for nearly…
Friedrichstraße Border Crossings
We walk the dramatic divide of Friedrichstraße, focusing on the high-security transit points, ghost stations, and legendary escape routes between East and West Berlin.
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1. Tränenpalast
2. Friedrichstraße
Friedrichstraße is a major north-south artery in Berlin, recognizable by the sweeping, arched glass roofs of its central railway station. Originally laid out in the late seventeenth century, this three-kilometer street served as a primary…
3. Französische Straße
Französische Straße, a thoroughfare in the Mitte district, takes its name from the Huguenot refugees who settled here in the late seventeenth century after the Edict of Potsdam. The street became a center for the French community, who…
4. Stadtmitte
Stadtmitte is a major underground interchange where the U-Bahn lines U-two and U-six meet. You can identify the site by its two distinct platform levels, which are connected by a narrow pedestrian underpass nicknamed the Mouse Tunnel by…
5. DIE MAUER / THE WALL - asisi Panorama Berlin
The asisi Panorama Berlin is housed within a cylindrical steel rotunda located at the corner of Friedrichstraße and Zimmerstraße. This structure contains a massive, three-hundred-sixty-degree photographic panorama measuring fifteen meters…
6. Checkpoint Charlie
At the intersection of Friedrichstraße and Zimmerstraße sits a small, white wooden guardhouse and a series of sandbags that mark the location of Checkpoint Charlie. During the Cold War, this was the most famous of the border crossings…
7. Wall Museum - Checkpoint Charlie
The Wall Museum, or Mauermuseum, occupies a building on Friedrichstraße positioned immediately beside the site of the former border crossing known as Checkpoint Charlie. This intersection served as the primary entry point for Allied…
8. Peter Fechter - Monument
A steel stela stands near the corner of Zimmerstrasse, marking the place where eighteen-year-old Peter Fechter died on August seventeenth, nineteen sixty-two. A round basalt block is set into the ground nearby, indicating the precise spot…
9. Reste der Berliner Mauer Zimmerstraße
The remaining sections of the Berlin Wall along Zimmerstraße consist of concrete panels that once formed the inner boundary of a heavily guarded border. Because this street was a primary route for state guests arriving from the airport,…