Berlin Wall Memorial and the East Side Gallery

National Memorial To The Division Of Germany: A Preserved Section Of The Border Strip On Bernauer Strasse With A Documentation Centre And Viewing Tower, Plus The 1.3 Km Painted East Side Gallery On The Spree · Berlin, Berlin

The Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse is Germany's national memorial to the division of the country, opened in stages from 1998 along about 1.4 km of the former border. Here the wall ran along the street itself, with houses on the eastern side and the pavement on the western, and people jumped from windows, tunnelled under the road and died trying to cross. A section of the border strip has been kept with its outer wall, floodlights, patrol road and watchtower position, and the Window of Remembrance shows photographs of those killed at the wall. A documentation centre with a viewing tower, a chapel built where a church was demolished to clear the strip, and an open-air exhibition along the street make up the rest. The East Side Gallery in Friedrichshain, 1.3 km of inner wall painted by artists in 1990, is a different place with a different purpose: busy, repainted, weathered and tagged, and better understood after Bernauer Strasse rather than instead of it.

Bernauer Strasse 111, Berlin Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg, with the East Side Gallery on Muehlenstrasse, Friedrichshain, Berlin, Berlin, Germany

The open-air memorial grounds along Bernauer Strasse are free and open daily from early morning until late evening, and the outdoor exhibition, the preserved border strip and the Window of Remembrance can be walked at any time within that. The documentation centre, the viewing tower and the visitor centre keep shorter hours and are generally closed on Mondays, as most German memorial institutions are - confirm. The Chapel of Reconciliation holds a short weekday remembrance service for individual victims at midday and is otherwise open limited hours. Entry everywhere here is free. The East Side Gallery on Muehlenstrasse is an open street with no gates, hours or charge, and is quietest early in the morning.

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