Along the Wall

Potsdamer Platz

Potsdamer Platz is a public square and traffic intersection in the centre of Berlin, Germany, lying about 1 km south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag, and close to the southeast corner of the Tiergarten park. It is named after the city of Potsdam, some 25 km to the south west, and marks the point where the old road from Potsdam passed through the city wall of Berlin at the Potsdam Gate. Initially, the open area near the city gate was used for military drills and parades.

1.1 km to the next stop

Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie was the Western Bloc’s name for the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War, becoming a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of East and West. East German leader Walter Ulbricht agitated and maneuvered to get the Soviet Union’s permission to construct the Berlin Wall in 1961 to prevent brain drain, emigration and defection from East Berlin and the wider German Democratic Republic into West Berlin. Soviet and American tanks briefly faced each other at the location during the Berlin Crisis of 1961.