Where was the Berlin Wall, please?

If you start a walk from the former crossing point Sonnenalle, which is well described in the book by Thomas Brussig, you can pass by the Western patrol path along the Heidekampgraben.

This path ends in the Dammweg, which turns to the right. Here you can cross the border to Treptow and leave the former state border, which you can see once again by turning to the left in the Kiefholzstraße behind some allotments; this time you are on the eastern side of the Wall, on the former no man’s land, the death strip.

They could use only the riverside on the Landwehr canal up to the Treptower Bridge (which was restored after the fall of the Wall) and then they could cross the Schlesischen Busch passing by the place called am Flutgraben, where you can see the last remained tower of the former border patrols (today it is the Kunstfabrik am Flutgraben registered association - www.kunstfabrik.org).

The dye mill nearby belongs now to Kreuzberg. If you walk by foot or if you ride a bicycle, you can pass by the riverside, by „the green beach of the spree River“(Hans Scholz) and you can pass under the Elsen Bridge and reach the Treptower Park. And then you can reach the Spreepark and Plänterwald up to Baumschulenstraße. This has always been the border to Friedrichshain, Lichtenberg and, from 1938 until 2001, Köpenick.

Treptow with its 13 km long wall had the longest border to the Western sectors, approximately a third of the overall length of the wall that divided the entire city. Most of this border was formed by the part along the Britzer Canal and the Teltower Canal. In addition to this, there were barricades on the Western edge of Altglienicke between the Teltow Canal and the city border.

Hans-Rainer Harder, press office of the municipality Treptow, Berlin
Translation by: Elisa Perottoni