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Berlin Wall Memorial

High Walls, Barbed Wires and Watchtowers

A 200-meter-long section of the Berlin Wall remains in Berlin's Bernauer Straße, along with watchtowers, lampposts and ruins, which are collectively known as the Berlin Wall Memorial Park, together with the nearby Berlin Wall Memorial, Documentation Center, Chapel of Reconciliation and others.

The Berlin Wall Memorial Park is centered on a section of 200 Meters Long Berlin Wall of Berlin’s Bernauer Straße, which is not artistic as East Side Gallery nor as crowded as Potsdamer Platz. All it has is a statement of history and memories.

To prevent people from fleeing, the GDR erected watchtowers, searchlights, and metal fences east of the Berlin Wall, and demolished other structures in the 100-meter zone within the wall, leaving no hiding place for East Germans attempting to climb over the wall, this section of the empty zone is known as the Death Strip.

The Berlin Wall Memorial Park has preserved a section of death strip, which is now overgrown with grass, but it seems soldiers’ steps and police dogs’ barks can still be heard today. It is said that between 1961 and 1989, at least 136 People Died Trying to Cross the Berlin Wall.

Manywhere Trivia:
The East German “death strip” is not just a rumor, here’s a brief description of other features in the zone: ground alarms, high-voltage electrified fence, spike traps, anti-vehicle ditch and flattened sand (for tracking footprints).

In addition to the wall and the death strip, the Berlin Wall Memorial Park has Berlin Wall Memorial and Documentation Center, and the Chapel of Reconciliation, which detail the history of the Berlin Wall from its inception to demise.