The Berlin Wall on foot: a self-guided walk along Bernauer Straße from Nordbahnhof to Mauerpark, with what is open each day

One of 2 self-guided walks in Berlin. See every walk.

In this guide

💡 The Short Version: Start at Nordbahnhof (S1, S2, S25, S26) and finish at Eberswalder Straße (U2): 2.7 km, about 35 minutes of walking and half a day with the exhibitions. The memorial is free. The outdoor exhibition is open daily from 8:00 to 22:00, and the Visitor Centre and the Documentation Centre, with its viewing tower, are open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00 and shut on Mondays. Walk it Tuesday to Saturday, when Konnopke’s Imbiss at the end is open; on Sunday the Mauerpark flea market is on. Or book a tour: the Wall Tour: Fates, Love Stories, and Heroesad (from €23, 2 hours) follows the same strip.

The route

Map of the walk numbered stops in walking order

Open the whole route in Google Maps - all the stops in walking order, set to walking directions, which is the version to put on your phone.

The Wall on Bernauer Straße was one part of 155 km of border installations around West Berlin. Here the border ran along the fronts of the houses on the East Berlin side, so the street was the scene of escapes, tunnels and deaths, and the Berlin Wall Foundation keeps 1.4 km of the border strip as a memorial. The route follows the memorial from Nordbahnhof to Brunnenstraße, then goes on 1.3 km to Mauerpark and Eberswalder Straße. Admission is free throughout.

Walk it with a guide

The Foundation’s own tours are €5, and a phone guide is free. A paid guide adds the escape stories and goes on to other Wall sites. The memorial is free, so none of the tours below sells entry. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, per person.

• Berlin: Wall Tour - Fates, Love Stories, and Heroesad, by Adventure World Tours: from €23, 4.8 stars from 809 reviews, 2 hours, in English or German. It follows the strip from Gesundbrunnen to Prenzlauer Berg, visits the Berlin Wall Memorial and climbs the lookout, and the start point depends on the option, with Gartenstraße 86 and Bernauer Straße 111 among them.
• Cold War, Berlin Wall, Spies and the East Side Galleryad, by Insider Tour Berlin: from €20, 4.8 stars from 418 reviews, 3 hours, in English, German or Spanish. It covers the death strip, Karl-Marx-Allee, the Tränenpalast, Alexanderplatz and the East Side Gallery.
• Berlin: Berlin Wall & East Side Gallery Walking Tourad, by Real Berlin Tours: from €25, 4.7 stars from 387 reviews, 2 hours, in English or Spanish, from the East Side Bäckerei to the Oberbaumbrücke. Berlin walking tours compares these with the bike tours along the Wall.

1. Nordbahnhof

Free · the exhibition is open during the station’s hours · S1, S2, S25, S26; tram M10

The exhibition “Border and Ghost Stations in Divided Berlin” is on the mezzanine of the S-Bahn station. From 1961 to 1989 three U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines ran from one part of West Berlin to another through East Berlin, and the exhibition shows how the trains passed through stations that were closed. The Visitor Centre is 190 m away, across Gartenstraße.

• From the platform: a 100 m tunnel leads from the mezzanine to the exit towards Gartenstraße.
• Bus: line 247 stops at Nordbahnhof/Gartenstraße, outside the Visitor Centre.

2. Visitor Centre

Free · Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00 · closed Mondays · Bernauer Straße 119

The Visitor Centre at Bernauer Straße 119. Photo: Ansgar Koreng, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 DE.

The Visitor Centre is the starting point for individual visitors and has lockers and a cloakroom; a model of the grounds stands outside, at Gartenstraße. Two films run on the upper floor in sequence. In English, “The Berlin Wall” is shown on every half hour and the computer animation “Walled In” 15 minutes before the hour. The film room can be closed for events: the Foundation’s number is +49 30 213085-123.

• Rules: eating and drinking are not allowed in the Visitor Centre or the Documentation Centre, and photographs are for private use only, without tripods or selfie sticks.
• A free guide: the Foundation’s digital guide runs four tours of 30 to 60 minutes on a phone, without an app. Its 60-minute “Wall & Border” tour has eight stations that this route passes.
• Tours: public tours of about an hour with audio guides are €5 (€3 reduced), with no registration. The dates are on the Foundation’s programme page.
• More: the Berlin Wall Memorial has the hours and the holiday closures.

3. Monument and Documentation Centre

Free · outdoors daily 8:00 to 22:00 · Documentation Centre Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, last ascent 17:45 · Bernauer Straße 111

The Window of Remembrance on the memorial grounds, with portraits of people who died at the Wall. Photo: Andrzej Otrębski, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Walk 260 m east along the north side of Bernauer Straße. The Monument, dedicated on 13 August 1998, encloses 70 m of the original border strip between two steel walls, and nobody can walk into it, as before 1989. It mixes original remains with reconstructions. From the viewing platform on the Documentation Centre, added in 2002, the strip lies below like a 1:1 model of the border system of the 1980s. The centre’s exhibition, “1961 | 1989. The Berlin Wall.”, shows why the Wall was built, how it stood for 28 years and how it fell. The Reconciliation Parish built the building in 1965 as its community centre.

• The Window of Remembrance: it names the 132 civilians who died at the Wall, and the names of eight border soldiers killed on duty are on a column on the patrol path nearby.
• The watchtower: BT 9 towers went up on Bernauer Straße in the 1980s and were demolished in the spring of 1990. The one inside the Monument, on Ackerstraße, is a replica.
• Bergstraße: the street was walled off in 1961 and is the only one in Berlin that the Wall still divides. The road surface and kerb of 1961 were dug up in 2009.
• Segments of the Wall: in 1997 the Sophien parish took out 32 pieces of Wall to draw attention to the cemetery that had stood on the strip. The gap is 19 m long and Corten steel poles mark where the Wall stood.
• The Ackerstraße corner: the official demolition of the Wall began here on 13 June 1990.
• Access: both centres are barrier-free, and the lift in the Documentation Centre needs a key from the front desk.

4. Chapel of Reconciliation

Free · outdoors daily 8:00 to 22:00 · prayer services for the victims of the Wall Tuesday to Friday at 12:00

Walk 230 m on. The Chapel of Reconciliation, dedicated in 2000, stands on the spot where the Reconciliation Church stood. After 1961 the church was inaccessible inside the border strip, and the GDR government dynamited it in 1985. The altarpiece, taken out before the demolition, and a cellar staircase with the relics of a bricked-up door of 1961 are inside. The original church bells hang in a horizontal bell tower in front of the chapel and are rung by hand.

• The border houses: the Foundation excavated the cellar of one of the buildings on the border, which were bricked up in 1961 and later demolished. The border ran along the edge of the buildings, so the houses belonged to East Berlin and the pavement in front of them to West Berlin.
• Corten steel: the rust-coloured steel on the ground marks where parts of the border strip, the demolished church and the escape tunnels no longer exist.

5. Strelitzer Straße watchtower

Free · outdoors daily 8:00 to 22:00 · the corner of Bernauer Straße and Strelitzer Straße

A steel representation of a watchtower on Bernauer Straße, seen from below. Photo: Ansgar Koreng, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 DE.

The corner is about 370 m on and is where the core of the memorial, which runs 500 m from Gartenstraße, ends. Five watchtowers stood on Bernauer Straße about 250 m apart, placed so that a guard had a view of both sides of the border strip. The tower that stood here was dismantled in 1990, and its foundations turned up in the ground when the Foundation built the representation: four weathering-steel columns, each 11.8 m high, in a square on the tower’s position.

• An escape tunnel: on 5 October 1964 a tunnel was found in the courtyard of Strelitzer Straße 55, and the border guard Egon Schultz was fatally wounded in an exchange of fire between border guards and an escape helper.

6. Brunnenstraße

Free · outdoors daily 8:00 to 22:00 · U8 Bernauer Straße

The grounds end 300 m on at Brunnenstraße, beside the U8 station, with a second model of the memorial. More than 140 round metal plates are set in the ground across the memorial, each marking an event on the strip; look down as you walk. The Foundation counts ten people who died near the memorial because of the GDR border regime, all in the 1960s: four were shot by border guards, five died after jumping from border houses on Bernauer Straße, and a border guard died in an exchange of fire. At least 140 people died at the Wall.

• Leave here: the U8 from Bernauer Straße reaches Alexanderplatz in three stops, so the route can be cut short.

7. Mauerpark

Free · Sunday flea market and open-air karaoke · Bernauer Straße 63

The Mauerpark seen from its slope. Photo: Traktorminze, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Walk 510 m east along Bernauer Straße to the park entrance. The Mauerpark is on the former border strip, on land that had been a drill ground and a goods yard. The Foundation’s account of Bernauer Straße says that on the night of 10 November 1989 the first segments of the Wall were knocked out between Bernauer Straße and Eberswalder Straße. The Grün Berlin park operator describes the Wall here as a distinctive section: a bare strip tens of metres wide, with watchtowers, floodlights and patrol paths, through a densely built quarter where many houses were demolished.

• Sundays: the flea market is held on almost every Sunday, and an open karaoke takes place in the amphitheatre on Sunday afternoons.
• At the entrance: the Mauersegler beer garden and the schönwetter* beach bar are on Bernauer Straße.

8. Eberswalder Straße

Free · U2 Eberswalder Straße · Konnopke’s Tuesday to Friday 11:00 to 18:00, Saturday 12:00 to 18:00

Walk 790 m east to the junction of Schönhauser Allee and Eberswalder Straße, where the U2 runs on a viaduct. Konnopke’s Imbiss stands under it at Schönhauser Allee 44B. The U2 reaches Alexanderplatz, where the Mitte walk ends, in three stops. The tram M10 stops at Wolliner Straße, at the park’s edge.

Where to eat

Konnopke’s Imbiss

Schönhauser Allee 44B, under the viaduct · Tuesday to Friday 11:00 to 18:00, Saturday 12:00 to 18:00 · closed Sunday and Monday · konnopke-imbiss.de

A currywurst stand that dates itself to 1930. Order the currywurst, a pork sausage cut into rounds under a curry-ketchup sauce. The question at the stand is “mit Darm oder ohne”, with a natural casing or without. It is the walk’s last stop, so it fits Tuesday to Saturday. Currywurst and döner in Berlin has the other stands.

Prater Garten

Kastanienallee 7-9, U2 Eberswalder Straße · pub Monday to Saturday from 17:00, Sunday from 12:00 · pratergarten.de

The garden calls itself the oldest beer garden in Berlin. The beer garden closes for the winter, and the pub inside stays open. It is for an evening after the walk.

Where to eat in Berlin names the markets and stands beyond the route, and Konnopke’s is shut on Sundays.

The best day to go

The timing that works, Tuesday to Friday: be at the Visitor Centre when it opens at 10:00 and watch the English film, which runs on the half hour. Do the Documentation Centre and its tower next, then the outdoor exhibition, and reach Konnopke’s before it shuts at 18:00. On a Saturday it is open from 12:00 to 18:00, so reach it in that window.

What closes:

• Mondays: the Visitor Centre and the Documentation Centre, except 9 November 2026.
• 24, 25 and 31 December 2026: both centres. On 26 December and 1 January the Visitor Centre is open 12:00 to 18:00.
• Sundays and Mondays: Konnopke’s Imbiss.

What does not close: the outdoor exhibition, open daily from 8:00 to 22:00, and the streets, Mauerpark and Nordbahnhof. A Monday still makes a good walk: the memorial grounds, the Monument, the chapel and the watchtower are all outdoors, and only the two buildings are shut.

Getting there and back

• To the start: Nordbahnhof is on the S1, S2, S25 and S26, and the tram M10 stops there. The U6 stops at Naturkundemuseum and the U8 at Bernauer Straße. The S-Bahn from Friedrichstraße runs on the same lines. A single AB ticket is €4.00 and a 24-hour AB ticket €11.20: see Berlin public transport.
• From the end: Eberswalder Straße is on the U2, three stops from Alexanderplatz. The tram M10 stops at Wolliner Straße, beside Mauerpark.
• In reverse: from Alexanderplatz, take the U8 to Bernauer Straße, walk the memorial from stop 6 back to Nordbahnhof, and finish at the S-Bahn. Walk it this way on a Sunday to reach the centres when they open, then the flea market.

What to do with the rest of the day

• The Mitte walk: the Berlin Mitte walk runs from the Reichstag to Alexanderplatz, three U8 stops from Bernauer Straße and three U2 stops from Eberswalder Straße.
• More Wall sites: the East Side Gallery shows the painted stretch, and Checkpoint Charlie shows the crossing. The Berlin Wall Memorial has the hours and prices in full.
• The secret police: the Stasi Museum or Hohenschönhausen covers the surveillance behind the border, and Berlin underground tours covers Under the Berlin Wall, a 90-minute tour of escape tunnels near U Bernauer Straße.
• The days: 3 days in Berlin places the Wall on day three, and free things to do in Berlin lists what else costs nothing.

Common questions

How long is the Berlin Wall walk along Bernauer Straße?

2.7 km from Nordbahnhof to Eberswalder Straße, measured along the streets: about 35 minutes of walking. The Foundation's memorial grounds take up the first 1.2 km, and with the Visitor Centre's film and the Documentation Centre's exhibition and tower the walk fills half a day.

Is the Berlin Wall walk free?

Yes. Admission to every exhibition of the Berlin Wall Memorial is free, indoors and outdoors, as are the ghost-station exhibition in Nordbahnhof and Mauerpark. A public guided tour is €5 (€3 reduced), and a tour of more than 90 minutes €7 (€4).

When are the Wall Memorial's centres open?

The Visitor Centre and the Documentation Centre are open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00, with the last ascent of the tower at 17:45, and closed on Mondays. The outdoor exhibition is open every day from 8:00 to 22:00. On Monday 9 November 2026, the anniversary of the fall of the Wall, both centres are open 10:00 to 18:00.

Do I need to book anything for the Berlin Wall walk?

No. Individual visitors do not register for the exhibitions, the introductory film or the viewing tower. Group tours are booked in advance, and the Foundation runs a free digital guide for a phone, with four tours of 30 to 60 minutes.

Which day is best for the Berlin Wall walk?

Tuesday to Saturday, when both centres and Konnopke's Imbiss are open. Konnopke's is shut on Sundays and Mondays, but on a Sunday the Mauerpark flea market and its open-air karaoke are on, and on Mondays the centres are shut.

Where does the Berlin Wall walk start and finish?

It starts at Nordbahnhof (S1, S2, S25 and S26) and finishes at Eberswalder Straße (U2), three stops from Alexanderplatz. From Alexanderplatz, the end of the Mitte walk, the U8 reaches Bernauer Straße in three stops.