Museums and Berlin Wall 11/22/25
Today was another cold day in Berlin, temps around 30 deg F and low of 21. That is officially cold in my book. So we actually dressed a tad lighter than we did yesterday and planned to spend some time in a couple of museums. We started with the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. It is vast and would take you two days to explore the entire museum. The sections dedicated to the actual Checkpoint Charlie station are quite small compared to the rest of the displays. There is tons of info about other countries’ struggles for freedom from Communism and securing basic human rights, such as Ukraine, Belarus, Afghanistan, Korea, and the former Yugoslavia, as well as lots of info about NATO. There is a whole section dedicated to President Regan, as his influence and policies were instrumental in the fall of the former USSR. It was quite interesting and we recommend a visit here if you are visiting Berlin.
There were very interesting displays of all the creative ways people used to escape from East Berlin. They included tunnels, flying crude airplanes, a zip line, and being put into a suitcase and a petrol tank with only a small portion of the tank holding actual petrol. Other methods included special alterations to cars so that the extra weight of hidden people wouldn’t trigger a search. My favorite story was about two sisters who were married with families, and the sisters, their husbands, and children all favored each other in appearance. One lived in West Berlin and one in East Berlin. As East Berliners, you were allowed to travel to other Communist block countries, so both families traveled to Czechoslovakia. The West Berlin family later reporter their car and all their documents and passports stolen, but by that time, the East Berlin sister’s family had picked up the car and driven back to West Berlin. East Germany actually apologized to the West Berlin family for having their belongings stolen while in a Communist block country. But the larger question here is, why do you have to build a wall to keep your people in, and why do they risk their lives to leave???
We had some lunch then visited the Topography of Terror Museum, located on the site of the former Gestapo Headquarters. The basement of the Gestapo building, where people were imprisoned and tortured, has been excavated, and it sits directly below a section of the Berlin Wall, hence the name Topography of Terror. This section of the basement and wall contains several displays about how Hitler came to power and the events that followed. The museum itself focuses on the methods of terror that the Nazi regime used to scare, intimidate, and control citizens. We had a guided tour of the museum by a really great historian. One of his great grandfathers was a Nazi supporter and never talked about what he saw or supposedly didn’t see, and remained in denial for the rest of his life. One of his great grandfathers was a democracy supporter and always talked about the events and the horrors that took place. He was very candid about the difference between those two outlooks and the effect that people with similar beliefs have had on the future of the country. The Nazi party is illegal in Germany but the Nazis are still here, just finding creative ways to organize and talk about their ideology while still within the confines of the current laws. Currently, the Alternative for Germany (AFD) party, which has been classified by the government as a “confirmed right-wing extremist endeavor” and a “racist organization” and is being monitored by the the government, is gaining power and seats in the Bundestag (German parliament). They hold 151 seats in the 630 member house.
After these sobering experiences, we decided to visit another Christmas market, so we took the train to the small market at Uber Arena. It was definitely not worth the train trip or the freezing cold temperatures, as it only consisted of a Glühwein stand and a sausage stand. They did have some heaters and a lot of seating, so we had a Glühwein, sat under a heater, and chatted with a local couple for a while, before making our way back, missing our train stop, backtracking, and finally having some great authentic German food for dinner. It’s always an adventure trying to decipher the subway map in a new city when you’re freezing and hungry, but these are first world problems. What a perspective this place gives you!
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