Berlin Wall

Back in 1988, one year before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Tilda Swinton took her bike and cycled round the Berlin Wall, together with the filmmaker Cynthia Beatt. What they created came to be known as Cycling the Frame and it’s a beautiful and surreal document that shows a city scarred by a wall that cut it in half.

Cycling the Frame: When Tilda Swinton cycled by the Berlin Wall

Berlin
3 min read
19/03/201915/04/2025

The public transport system in Berlin is quite complete and includes ferries, buses, trams, and trains split into the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn. But, for a brief moment in time, there was also the Berlin M-Bahn, and we will always regret not being able to take a ride in one since it was made out of service back in 1991, a little after the reunification of Germany.

Berlin M-Bahn: The Brief History of the First Maglev train in Germany

Berlin
3 min read
25/09/201814/11/2024

Sometimes I go on Youtube and search for movies related to Berlin in any way. This is how I discovered some of the youtube videos I have written about here, and this is how I found out about Background to Berlin, a NATO Information Service movie that explains, in a little less than 30 minutes, the history of the German capital from 1945 to 1961.

Background to Berlin: A NATO Information Service explaining everything about Berlin from 1945 to 1961

Berlin
3 min read
25/07/201808/10/2024

Back in 1999, local historian Christian Bormann found something that it wasn’t supposed to be lost. Nine years after demolition began, he found a piece of the Berlin Wall, somehow forgotten in the woods between a train station and a supermarket. More than 80 meters of the original Berlin Wall, built in 1961, is standing there, some with the V-shaped brackets that once had barbed wire on it. It’s hard to believe that something with this historical importance was lost and this is why we went there to see it with our own eyes.

The Newly Found Original Berlin Wall that was lost in the woods in Schonholz

Berlin
5 min read
05/02/201823/05/2024

Walled in! – The inner German border is a computer animation produced by Deutsche Welle together with the Berlin Wall Foundation to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall. The short movie describes in details the fortifications and the way that the border between East and West Germany was set up and it’s an excellent resource for those who want to know more about it.

Understanding the Berlin Wall with Walled in! – The inner German border

Berlin
3 min read
30/01/201820/05/2024

During the years where Nick Cave was living in Berlin, back in the 1980’s, he was filmed for a Dutch documentary called Stranger in a Strange Land. Produced by Bram van Splunteren for the Dutch TV channel VPRO, you get a glimpse of the life of Nick Cave in Berlin even though some parts of the movie are voice-over in dutch. But you don’t need to worry about it, all the interviews with Nick Cave are in English.

Nick Cave in Berlin: Stranger in a Strange Land

Berlin
3 min read
16/12/201713/08/2024

Risiko was a legendary bar & club in the West Berlin of 1980’s, and Uli M Schueppel did a short film about its last morning, all the way back in 1986. The footage captures and documents a little piece of Berlin history with a cover of Lost in Music by Anita Lane and Alex Harvey as the soundtrack of this movie shot in Super8.

Last Morning of Risiko, one of Berlin’s legendary bars from the 1980’s

Berlin
3 min read
11/12/201730/12/2023

It was August 21, 1988, and four people decided to risk their lives crossing the Spree River in an attempt of escaping East Germany in hope for freedom in West Berlin. Three men and a woman risked their lives and watching it today make everything look like a distant event in the past, but that was Berlin at the time.

Escaping East Germany: Swimming Across the Spree into West Berlin in Video

Berlin
3 min read
12/11/201705/02/2024

Konrad H. Jarausch explains the Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall on a TED-ED video animation

Konrad H. Jarausch explains the Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall on a TED-ED video animation

Berlin
2 min read
07/10/201708/04/2024

If you are a walk along where the Berlin Wall used to be around Bernauer Strasse, you will see a meat mural that might be our favorite street art piece in Berlin. This enormous painting shows the side of buildings being cut by a large knife with the shape of the city being represented in some white tissue. For us, this shows how the Berlin Wall was a scar running along the city.

If Walls Could Talk… — A Meat Mural by Marcus Haas where the Berlin Wall used to be

Berlin
3 min read
07/09/201710/10/2024

While I was browsing through these books, I realized that I have been to a lot of different places in Berlin and that, maybe, I should just write down my list of places to see in Berlin. Yeah, so this is my list of places to see in the beautiful German capital. These are the places that I bring my friends when they are visiting me; these are some of the places that I bring my family when they come here. These places are here because I like them. I might like the food there; I may like the experience of being there, I might like the history behind. And I believe that you should visit them.

52 Places to See in Berlin: One for each week of the year

Berlin
37 min read
30/06/201721/02/2024

Like I said before, We Will Forget Soon is a fantastic book that documents a part of German history that most people don’t like to talk about but that needs to be told. Dario-Jacopo Laganá and Stefano Corso did a fantastic job with their book, and I believe that everybody that has some interest in this part of history needs to have this on their bookshelf.

We Will Forget Soon: An Interview with Dario-Jacopo Laganá

Berlin, Interviews
11 min read
08/05/201722/02/2024

When David Bowie died, in early 2016, we were surprised to read a tweet from the German Foreign Office mentioning how he helped bring down the Berlin Wall. We read it and started looking for a David Bowie Berlin Concert so we could see him in action. One of the first items we found was the Glass Spider Tour of 1987 that became legendary for a lot of reasons. Some say it was the worst tour Bowie ever did. Below we’re going to explain you this concert in Berlin.

David Bowie Berlin Concert 1987: The Glass Spider Tour in front of the Reichstag

Berlin
3 min read
28/03/201709/01/2024

The Berlin Wall is the reason why Berlin had some ghost stations. Most of them were on the S-Bahn line S2, the U-Bahn line U6 and the U8. Those lines travelled through what was then East Berlin on their way back into West Berlin. Trains could go through it but the stations were sealed off and heavily guarded. This happened because, when the Berlin Wall went up, some people realized that they could escape using the train lines. After the East German police realized that, they closed down the stations. This way the stations couldn’t be used as a possible mean to escape to West Berlin.

Berlin Ghost Stations: Potsdamer Platz 1989

Berlin, Urbex
4 min read
07/09/201611/01/2024

The Berlin Wall was a scar that can still be seen today in the german capital. It split the city into east and west, capitalism and communism, from 1961 to 1989. When it fell, it united the country again and made Germany what it is today.

Berlin Wall: One Year After it was built

Berlin
3 min read
25/08/201630/01/2024

BER-402/ KB/22.7.90/Berlin: Rockspektakel "The Wall"/ Rund 300 000 Zuschauer aus ganz Europa und Übersee waren auf den ehemaligen "Todesstreifen" zwischen Brandenburger Tor und Leipziger Platz gekommen, um die Neuinszenierung der Rockoper "The Wall" von Ex-"Pink-Floyd" Chef Roger Waters zu erleben. Das gigantische Happening war zugleich Auftakt einer weltweiten Spendenaktion des World War Memorial Found for Disaster Relief (Fond für Katastrophenopfer). Die Show auf dem Potsdamer Platz in der Nacht vom 21. zum 22. Juli wurde vom Fernsehen live in alle Welt gestrahlt. [Berlin, Potsdamer Platz.- Aufführung der Rockoper "The Wall" auf dem ehemaligen Todesstreifen]

26 years of Roger Waters’ The Wall – Live in Berlin

Berlin
8 min read
21/07/201621/07/2018

Nordbahnhof Park in the Winter by Felipe Tofani

Beyond the Tracks: Exploring the Nordbahnhof Park in Winter and its Surroundings

Berlin, Germany
6 min read
23/01/201605/07/2024

The Parliament of Trees: Where Nature Remembers the Berlin Wall

Berlin
4 min read
18/07/201519/03/2024

Elisabeth Sanatorium - Urban Exploration Berlin with Fotostrasse_108

Elisabeth Sanatorium: History of an Abandoned German Clinic

Urbex
5 min read
07/07/201519/04/2025

Flying over Berlin in 1991

Berlin, Germany
2 min read
24/04/201510/12/2023

B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin in the 80s

Berlin, Germany
2 min read
16/04/201504/12/2023