Berlin Wall Bike Trail: round trip

Roundtrip on the traces of the Berlin Wall

Where did the Berlin Wall used to stand?

Look forward to an unusual bike tour and walk in the footsteps of the more recent german history. The Berlin Wall is probably one of the most known structures of the 20th century and when it fell on November 9th, 1989, the whole world was watching. The subsequent demolition of the border fortifications, which separated the city and the people for decades, was intentional after the fall of the Wall. Today only parts of the Wall are still existing, but the old border paths, over which the spectacular Wall bike path leads today, are still completely preserved. Old border fortifications such as watchtowers and checkpoints have been rebuilt and are under protection. Interesting museums and documentation centers are often housed in them. You may be surprised that the bike path leads through very scenic sections. The most interesting part of the bike path, however, leads over 18 kilometers through the middle of the city of Berlin. You can discover top sights such as the Brandenburg Gate, the boulevard 'Unter den Linden' and the parliament and government district at the same time. A special highlight is the overnight stay in the center of Berlin, near Potsdamer Platz. The path is mostly paved and easy to cycle, the stops deliberately chosen to be short so that you have enough time for the many sights.

1. day Arriving in Potsdam

Arrive on time, it will be worth it! You will get to know one of Germany’s most impressive towns. Visit the palace of Sanssouci with its wide park to marvel at Frederick the Great’s summer residence and do not miss out on the historical parts of Potsdam like the russian colony Alexandrowka, the dutch quarter and the former bohemian webber’s district. The famous film park Babelsberg, the leisure cruisers of Potsdam and the many parks only wait for you to come visit.

2. day Potsdam - Spandau, approx. 35 km

Another highlight awaits you only after a short while as the Glienicke bridge guides your way out of town. Built more than 300 years ago, the bridge came to attract world wide attention within only a few days as it became the legendary scene of the Cold War as the United States and the Soviet Union exchanged spies here. Today, the bridge unites Potsdam and the federal capital of Berlin again. Past Cecilienhof castle, where the Potsdam Conference was held in the summer of 1945 to decide over Germany’s partition into occupation zones, you will cycle to the Wannsee in Sacrow. Just by the Groß-Glienicke lake, you will encounter an original piece of the Berlin Wall before entering Spandau with Fort Hahnenberg, built in 1888 to protect the armament storage that Spandau was at the time. After 1952, Spandau was situated in the border area to become a kind of sleeping beauty in 1961. Apart from the occasional visits of the border guards, things stayed calm around here and nature took this chance to conquer the fortification back. Spandau and its small old town with the citadel are definitely worth a visit.

3. day Spandau - Hohen Neuendorf, approx. 40 km

In the morning you cycle through the Spandauer Forst, formerly a restricted area in the GDR, whose mixed forest impresses with its biodiversity and which was declared a "nature reserve of European importance" in 2000. Look forward to the beautiful bike route along the almost overgrown Nieder-Neuendorfer Canal. It is worth taking a detour to the thousand-year-old oaks. Marvel at these giants: 7 oaks, 25 m high with a circumference of 3.87 m to 6.15 m. You cycle past Laßzinsee, a small Eldorado for water and marsh birds, to the banks of the Havel, in the middle of which the former border ran. Take a break at the former Nieder Neuendorf border tower (built in 1987), which has been restored and is a building under monument protection. Today it houses a small museum about the division of Germany and the border fortifications. During the GDR era, it served to monitor this section of the border and was also the command post for 18 other border watchtowers. On the 4 floors there were some utility rooms, a detention cell, the lounge for the border guards and the command post, in which at least two border guards always had to keep watch. The last few kilometers along the Stolper Heide are now quickly cycled, so that you can relax and end a beautiful day in Hohen Neuendorf.

4. day Hohen Neuendorf – Berlin City, approx. 37 km

On the Wall bike path you cycle through the Tegeler Fließ nature reserve, where you can gain an insight into a quaint swampy landscape. It is worth taking a detour to Lübars with its well-preserved village center and the old village church. Lübars is the only surviving village in the Berlin urban area and is still used for agriculture today, mainly for keeping horses. Along the disused railroad tracks of the Heidekrautbahn and past the Märkisches Viertel, a high-rise estate built between 1963 and 1974 in the immediate vicinity of the Berlin Wall, you cycle towards Berlin Mitte. It is now happening in rapid succession: You discover the Börsebrücke and Bornholmer Strasse, known as the place where the border was first opened on November 9th, 1989. You pass the Bernauer Strasse memorial, where on August 13, 1961 refugees tried to escape from the windows of the houses on the border strip, because the sidewalk was already West Berlin ground and the "Invalidenfriedhof" - a graveyard which was divided by the wall. You will also be impressed by the new Berlin Central Station and the parliament and government district. Hardly in the saddle you can already reach the Brandenburg Gate, the splendid Berlin boulevard "Unter den Linden" and Potsdamer Platz, which was no man's land in GDR times. You spend the night in the center of Berlin and can still use the evening to enjoy the Berlin nightlife.

5. day Berlin City - Berlin Grünau, approx. 41 km

Past the fomer Stasi-headquarters your bike takes you to Checkpoint Charlie, which between 1961 and 1990 used to be one of the most well-known border checkpoints of Berlin. On Friedrichstraße, it used to interconnect the Soviet sector with the US-sector, thus the town district “Mitte” of East Berlin with the town district “Kreuzberg” of West Berlin. The control point was only open to associates of the allied forces and embassies, foreign citizens, collaborates of the permanent representation of the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR-officials. It often became the scene of spectacular escapes. Today, Checkpoint Charlie is a memorial site and one of Berlin’s most famous sights. Now, the Spree river with the East Side Gallery are the next stage of your route. Here, by Mühlenstraße, you will get to visit the largest preserved piece of the Berlin Wall on the town’s grounds. In 1990, artists from all over the world painted these last remaining 1,3 kilometres of the Berlin Wall.

Across the most beautiful bridge of Berlin, the Oberbaumbrücke dating from the 18th century, your bike takes you to the Landwehrkanal and across the trench Heidekampgraben to the Teltow channel in the town districts of Neukölln and Schönefeld. Would you like to experience Berlin by night once again? The close metro stations allow you to get back to the town centre in only 30 minutes.

6. day Berlin Grünau - Potsdam, approx. 47 km

Today, the Berlin Wall bike trail goes zigzagways along the southern edge of the town. You will discover Gropiusstadt, a residential estate of apartment towers and constructed blocks, housing up to 50.000 persons. In Marienfelde, an assembly and transit point helped more than 1,3 million refugees from the GDR to access the western German states until 1990. Today a memorial site and a museum have been erected in this place. You will now encounter a real ghost town: On 110 hectars of military restricted area, the US-army was trained for armed urban warfare.Then you will follow the beautiful Teltow channel and the Königsweg-trail to the former checkpoint Dreilinden. The control building, the roadhouse, the gas station and the terminal ramp for trucks are under monument protection today. Finally, the shore of the Griebnitzsee takes you back to Potsdam.

7. day Departing from Potsdam

Today after breakfast your eventful bike tour along the Berlin Wall bike trail comes to its end.

Worth knowing

Below you will find specific information about the tour "Berlin Wall Trail". If you have further questions about this trip, please simply call us: Phone: 06421 – 886890.

Arrival by train

Potsdam is easily accessible by train from all major cities in Germany. Our partner hotels are all within walking distance (5 - 10 minutes) from the next railway station. Current schedule information and price information can be found at: www.bahn.de.

Train schedule information

Parking facilities at the hotel

Our partner hotels provide parking possibilities for the entire duration of your bike trip. The costs are between 8,00 Euro and 18,00 Euro per day (2023), payable locally. A reservation is not possible. Detailed information on parking at your hotel, you will receive together with the detailed travel documents two weeks prior to departure

Condition of cycle paths

During your tour "on new bike trails around Berlin" you cycle on a variety of different bike paths and small side streets. The selected cycle routes have been created or paved within the last years and therefore of the highest quality. But there are also short passages of dirt road, sand or copplestone. The route is mostly flat. On day 4 and day 5 in the "Schorfheide" and the "Märkischen Schweiz" there are some hilly sections. The selected trails are well signposted and the route is signposted throughout with additional Velociped stickers (white V on green background).

Available rental bikes

If you choose to rent a Velociped-rental bike for the tour, we take it to your first hotel and pick it up at your destination. You can choose between woman’s and men's bicycles either with 7-speed gear shift and coaster brake or 27-speed gear shift and freewheel. 7/8-gear electric bikes are rented from a local partner. All ladies' bikes have a low opening that makes mounting and dismounting much easier. The bikes are suitable for all ladies from 150 cm in height and for all gentlemen from 165 cm in height. You simply specify your wishes at time of booking.

Velociped rental bikes

Coasts which are not included in the travel price

A possibly resulting tourist tax is not part of the travel price and therefore it has to be paid locally in the hotel.

7 days hotline service

In case of chain breakdown, flooding or other bad surprises that makes a continuation of your tour impossible: no problem, we also work during weekends and you can reach us 7 days a week in case of emergency.

Passport and visa requirements, health regulations

For EU citizens, there are no special passport or visa requirements and no health formalities to be considered for this trip.

Corona travel information:
Before booking your trip, please inform yourself about the measures in place to contain the Corona pandemic.

Information on current decisions of the German Federal Government can be found here:
https://www.bundesregierung.de/corona-these-rules-and-restrictions-apply

Current information on entry requirements to Germany can be found here:
https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/coronavirus

You can also find more information on our website at:
Corona virus and holiday planning

Travel insurance

The tour price already includes the statutory insolvency insurance. In addition, we recommend that you take out travel cancellation insurance upon receipt of your travel confirmation in order to protect yourself against financial disadvantages in the event of travel cancellation, interruption of travel, illness or accident.

Potsdam City

The past 300 years have seen the transformation of Potsdam from a garrison town to one of Europe’s most imposing royal capitals. The Prussian kings erected architectural masterpieces in and around Potsdam, among them numerous baroque creations and 17 palaces surrounded by opulent landscape parks.

Potsdam City

Potsdam, Glienicke Bridge

The Glienick Bridge connects Berlin and Potsdam via the Havel. At the time of the Berlin Wall the border was exactly in the middle of the bridge. There was no border crossing here. In the more than 300 years of its history, the Glienicker Bridge has only managed to attract the attention of the world in just a few days. And this with the help of such people who otherwise shun the light of the public like the devil the holy water: agents. Because of their seclusion (and because there was no fear of traffic, as in other "regular" border crossings), the border crossing point on the bridge on three days of the years 1962, 1985 and 1986 became spectacular exchanges of international agents from East and West used.

Glienicke Bridge

Cecilienhof Palace

Cecilienhof is the castle, in which from 17 July to 2 August 1945 the Potsdam Conference of the Victory Powers of the Second World War took place. It is the last palace building of the Hohenzollern dynasty. Emperor Wilhelm II had Cecilienhof built from 1914 to 1917 for his eldest son Crown Prince Wilhelm and his wife Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in the north of the New Garden. The castle, built of brick and wood, fits well into the natural environment. The castle now houses a hotel. In the museum one can find out about the Potsdam Agreement and the changing history of the house.

Cecilienhof Palace

Spandau Citadel

Spandau Citadel is considered the best preserved Renaissance fortification in northern Europe. There has been a fort on this site since the 11th century. Completed in 1230, the Julius tower is one of the oldest surviving structures in Berlin. The citadel's current exterior was created at the end of the 16th century by Italian architects. Today, it is open to the public.

Spandau Citadel

The Old Town of Spandau

The urban outline of Spandau was already developed in the 13th century and can still be traced back to the old town. The structure of buildings has constantly changed over the centuries as a result of fires, wars, and demolitions. Rebuilding after the Second World War greatly affected the original structure of the cultural heritage. Despite this development, building types of the different building periods have been preserved. In their totality, they form the typical small-town mix that documents the history of several centuries and the location of Spandau between the provinces and the city

The Old Town of Spandau

Nieder Neuendorf Watchtower

The Nieder Neuendorfer Tower has been preserved as one of the last frontier watchtowers and documents the "Berlin Wall", which was once here. To the east of the village center of Nieder Neuendorf are the Havel and Nieder Neuendorf Lake, in the middle of which the border between the GDR and West Berlin ran in the middle of 1949-90. From the 13th of August 1961, the GDR government set up border security facilities on the western bank. This included the watch tower built in 1987. It served to oversee this frontier and was also the gateway for 18 additional border guard towers. Since the completion of its refurbishment in 1999, the Nieder Neuendorf "Grenzwachturm" has been a documentation center for the division of Germany and the border installations accessible to the public.

Nieder Neuendorf, Watchtower

Soviet War Memorial, Treptow Park

The Soviet Memorial in Treptow Park was built in 1949. It was commissioned by the Soviet troops to honor the Red Army soldiers killed during World War II. The central place of the facility is an artificially designed mound. This is dominated by the sculpture "The Liberator". The figure depicts a soldier wearing a sword in his right hand and a child on his left arm. A swastika is just breaking under his boots. In 1994 the military ceremony for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Germany was held at the memorial by Chancellor Helmut Kohl and President Boris Yeltsin.

Soviet War Memorial

Wall Park

The Wall Park includes a section of the wall between the former districts of Prenzlauer Berg and Wedding. Today, the border between the districts of Prenzlauer Berg and Gesundbrunnen runs here. Since there are comparatively few green areas in the densely populated Prenzlauer Berg, the Mauerpark has developed into a popular place for recreation, which offers a home for jugglers, artists, musicians and families, and has made a name for itself in Berlin.

Wall Park

Berlin Wall Memorial

The Berlin Wall Memorial runs along both sides of Bernauer Strasse. The border on Bernauer Strasse ran between two city districts, Wedding and Mitte, and drew a line right here between West Berlin and East Berlin. The boundary line created an unusual situation: The buildings on the south side of the street still belonged to East Berlin, but the sidewalk right in front of these buildings was already a part of West Berlin. The photographs taken at Bernauer Strasse in 1961 were seen all over the world: They show people trying to escape to West Berlin by jumping from the windows and rooftops of houses on the border. Today on the side of the street that belonged to West Berlin, you’ll find the newly erected Visitor Center and the Documentation Center with a viewing platform. At the Visitor Center located at Bernauer Str. 119, two films are shown and information is available about the entire memorial site and what it has to offer. The Documentation Center at Bernauer Str. 111 shows an exhibition about the division of the city.

Berlin Wall Memorial

Checkpoint Charlie

It is the scene of several thrillers and espionage novels ranging from James Bond's "Octo-pussy" to "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" by John le Carré: Checkpoint Charlie. Starting on 22 September 1961 at most famous East German-West German border crossing, allied soldiers registered members of the American, British and French armed forces before their trip to East Berlin. Because of its role as a transition point for the members of the Allied forces, the Friedrichstraße border checkpoint in October 1961 was the scene of the so-called tank stand off. Today an installation by the artist Frank Thiel commemorates this incident as well as a plaque at the former border. Nearby can also be found the "Berlin Wall Museum - Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie," which again had a replica of the first Allied guardhouse set up on the median strip of the Friedrichstraße.

Checkpoint Charlie

East Side Gallery

An East German Trabant car, which appears to be breaking through the concrete. Honecker and Breschnew locked in a kiss of brotherly, socialistic love. With the East Side Gallery, a segment of the Berlin Wall has been turned into the longest open air gallery in the world. The Kunstmeile, or art mile in English, which is located along the banks of the river Spree in Friedrichshain, is 1316 metre long and therefore the longest segment of the Berlin Wall that is still standing. Right after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the East Side Gallery was painted by 118 artists from 21 different countries. Using various artistic means, the artists commented on the political events that took place in 1989 and 1990 in over 100 works of art found on the eastern side of the wall.

East Side Gallery

Oberbaum Bridge

Berlin's double-decker bridge Oberbaum Bridge (Oberbaumbrücke), built in 1895, links the two Berlin districts of Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain separated by the River Spree. Traffic runs on the lower part and U-Bahn trains (U1) on the second level. It was built on the site of a previous timber bridge built in 1724 when the construction of an elevated railway required a reinforced structure. A Cold War landmark of division between between east and west from 1961 to 1989, armed guards patrolled the banks of the river as a border area. The bridge was one of the crossover checkpoints from West to East.

Oberbaum Bridge

Palace of Tears

Leave-taking and longing, hope and despair, joy and fear — the building constructed in 1962 at Berlin’s Friedrichstraße station is tied to a broad spectrum of personal emotions and experiences. Until 1990, the departure hall built under East Germany’s SED regime was a border crossing from the GDR to West Berlin. Berliners soon dubbed this modern steel-and-glass construction, the scene of so many painful farewells, the “Palace of Tears”. The "Palace of Tears" reopened in September by the Foundation Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland with the permanant exhibition "Border experience. Everyday life in divided Germany. Original material, films and interviews with contemporary witnesses documents the effects of the border in Germany's everyday life.

Palace of Tears

Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate is one of Berlin's most important monuments – a landmark and symbol all in one with over two hundred years of history. A former symbol of the divided city, it drew visitors who used to climb an observation platform in order to get a glimpse of the world behind the Iron Curtain, on the other side of the barren "death-strip" which separated East from West Berlin, geographically and politically. It was here that on June 12, 1987, Ronald Regan issued his stern command to his cold war adversary admonishing him with the words: "Mr. Gorbachov – tear down this wall!". When Germany was reunified following the fall of the Berlin in November 1989 Brandenburg Gate quickly reinvented itself into the New Berlin's symbol of unity. It was officially opened to traffic on December 22, 1989 and 100,000 people came to celebrate the occasion.

Brandeburg Gate