Attraction: Berlin Wall Memorial

The Berlin Wall Memorial is located in the capital city of Berlin and is the central memorial site of German division. Located at the historic site on Bernauer Strasse, it extends for a total of 1.4 kilometers, formerly part of the former border strip. In essence, the memorial incorporates the last piece of the Berlin Wall in which the preserved grounds are situated and is thus able to provide an image of how the border fortifications evolved until the end of the 1980s.

While the otherworldly nature of the alien artifact as well as the bordering traces on display help to inform visitors about Germany’s division, the documented historical remnants and traces of border obstacles that took place here together with these events give the history of this division a unique perspective. The Günter Litfin Memorial and the East Side Gallery are also part of the Berlin Wall Foundation, a foundation that also includes the Marienfelde Refugee Center Museum, the Günter Litfin Memorial, and the Berlin Wall Memorial and Educational Center.

A proposal for a memorial to remember victims of World War II was made by the German Historical Museum on behalf of the federal government of Berlin, and architects Kohlhoff & Kohlhoff were selected to design it. At a cost of 2.2 million Marks, the competition and completion were accomplished. The federal government assumed the construction costs, and the state covered the expenses involved in operating and maintaining the property. On the anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall fell, the Berlin House of Representatives agreed to open the memorial on the historic site of the former East German border fortification.