East Berlin Tour: Architecture and Daily Life in East Germany
This street at the heart of eastern Berlin has had three names. Stalinallee, once the prestige boulevard of socialist East Berlin, was built up from the ashes of WWII in the 1950s. On this tour, we will discover how socialist ideology shaped life from architecture and surveillance to simple everyday activities. Beyond the bombastic facade, this street has been the stage for violent street fighting, demonstrations and funeral marches. We will ask the question what it meant to live well for those who built this street and the generations after. This tour doesn’t end with the collapse of the Berlin Wall but follows it into the 21st century and the stories of those Berliners still living there.
Options
English guide
What's included in East Berlin Tour: Architecture and Daily Life in East Germany
(Subject to Option Inclusions)Itinerary
Frankfurter Tor
Marvel at the symmetry of the Frankfurter Tor towers built by Herman Henselmann and find out how the plans for the first socialist street in Germany were made in early 1950s. Learn about the success of the national rebuilding program that mobilised thousands of volunteers.
See the modernist architecture from immediate post-WWII years by Hans Scharoun and find out more about his utopian urbanist ideas born in the ashes of destroyed Berlin but rejected soon after by the new East German regime.
See the building that served as a prototype for the rest of the socialist Karl-Marx-Allee and offered its first tenants unprecedented luxury. Find out how the building project became a propaganda tool and a magnet for Western architects.
Inclusions
- Expert local guide
- Gratuities
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- Wheelchair accessible
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Meet
Pickup and Dropoff
You will make your own way to the meeting points
Meeting Points
- At the Nextbike stand outside the Frankfurter Tor underground station, on the corner of Warschauer Straße and Karl-Marx-Allee. Look for our guide with the orange umbrella!
End Points
- Eastern side of the Strausberger Platz roundabout, 10 minute walk from Alexanderplatz
