Trip to Berlin

[Rob Brown]

Getting closer to my trip to Berlin. Yes I am very excited as this will be my first time of having a proper look around!

I am spending the next week or so researching places that I could visit that are to do with WW2 and the DDR.

I have found some sites but most of them are in German. Do you guys know of any great places to visit? And any web sites that will give more information on location, visiting hours etc..

Danke!

[Seigfried]

Hi Rob,
Have you read 'The Last Battle' by Cornelius Ryan? It is a great book about the battle for Berlin and many of the actions that take place are listed on a WW2 map of Berlin at the front of the book. I took this with me when I went to Berlin in 1990. The street layout has not changed much and I used the book as a guide book to find places. I saw the Soviet War Memorial at the Brandenburg Gate, Sov. Mem. at Treptower Park (the old East), the synagogue burnt down on Kristalnacht which was being rebuilt and the Reichstag. Also saw the area where the bunker was/is and the 1936 Olympic Stadium - an awesome piece of totalitarian architecture, although it may have been ruined by the updating for the world cup. There are flakturms in the Zoo and you can walk the East/West Axis where victory parades took place. Getsapo HQ was also being excavated when I was there. I have just finished scanning all my 35mm slides to disc which is why it is so fresh in my memory! You'll have a great time Have you checked the website www.thirdreichruins.com I'd love to go again

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Rob, here is an old thread of mine from last year on my trip to Berlin. I don't know if you saw it but it will give you some idea of what there is to be seen:


http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ad.php?t=99133

I am sure you will have a great time there.

Cheers, Ade.

[Mike G.]

Also Rob,

If you want to see coldwar era aircraft, the former British Airbase in Gatow (Former West Berlin) has been converted to an in-door / out-door air museum with some wonderful examples of Warsaw Pact fixed and rotary wing aircraft. The inside section of the museum also houses some very good examples of WWI and WWII fixed wing aircraft. Just something else to consider. Expect to spend all day on this one though, finished by some really good cold German Bier.

[Rob Brown]

Thanks for all your help! I am really looking forward to going, and a thanks to Soviet who helped me square up accommodation.

I'll try and visit as many places as I can and get plenty snaps for the forum.

Is Hoeneker's bunker in or near Berlin?

[Rob Brown]

Hi Rob,
Have you read 'The Last Battle' by Cornelius Ryan? It is a great book about the battle for Berlin and many of the actions that take place are listed on a WW2 map of Berlin at the front of the book. I took this with me when I went to Berlin in 1990. The street layout has not changed much and I used the book as a guide book to find places. I saw the Soviet War Memorial at the Brandenburg Gate, Sov. Mem. at Treptower Park (the old East), the synagogue burnt down on Kristalnacht which was being rebuilt and the Reichstag. Also saw the area where the bunker was/is and the 1936 Olympic Stadium - an awesome piece of totalitarian architecture, although it may have been ruined by the updating for the world cup. There are flakturms in the Zoo and you can walk the East/West Axis where victory parades took place. Getsapo HQ was also being excavated when I was there. I have just finished scanning all my 35mm slides to disc which is why it is so fresh in my memory! You'll have a great time Have you checked the website www.thirdreichruins.com I'd love to go again

Not read that book yet, I have read his "A bridge too far" that was a fab book with detailed maps of the area also. I'll keep that one in mind.

[torstenbel]

Hi Rob,
Have you read 'The Last Battle' by Cornelius Ryan? It is a great book about the battle for Berlin and many of the actions that take place are listed on a WW2 map of Berlin at the front of the book.

yes, that is a great book...somewhere towards the middle of the book there are three pages about the fighting in a small town called Schoenebeck, which had one of the very last remaining bridges across the Elbe and which is where the US Army wanted to cross the Elbe to get to Berlin before the Russians and there was some major fighting within the town and the bridge got blown up just as the first US tank made it up to the base of the bridge and this is what stopped the US Army sufficiently from advancing for Berlin and in time for orders to be issued that they should remain on the Western side of the Elbe and not advance any further...but if they had managed to take that bridge in one piece then the US Army would have been first in Berlin and who knows, what would have happened then....some days later they managed to cross the Elbe at Barby (only just south of Schoenebeck), but by then the order for them to stop the advance had already been issued (and by the way I was at exactly that spot where they crossed the Elbe last weekend on a visit to see my parents...;-))...

....and this little town Schoenebeck is the town where I was born and where I grew up...this is my hometown and until I read this book, I had absolutely no idea that all of this ever took place there...and the way that Ryan described the houses and streets and street corners is absolutely spot on and totally amazingly correct and has impressed me very much and I would assume that the rest of the book will be just as accurate in its detail descriptions of everything....

This book is well worth reading. Cheers, Torsten.

[Soviet]

Is Hoeneker's bunker in or near Berlin?

It's about 50 minutes from <st1:state w:st="on"><st1>Berlin </st1></st1:state>and it is unfortunately not open for the public.<o></o>

[Rob Brown]

It's about 50 minutes from <st1:state w:st="on"><st1>Berlin </st1></st1:state>and it is unfortunately not open for the public.<o></o>

Doh!!

[Rob Brown]

In Berlin, are there any reputable surplus shops that sell surplus NVA Military Equipment, particulary tunics as I am after a border guards tunic when I'm over there. Or are items like these best found in the flea markets?

Rob

[Soviet]

Contact Nico from the forum.

In Berlin-Sch******246;neberg<o></o>
<o></o>
Thrift Shop
Kolonnenstr. 46
10829 Berlin<o></o>

Opening hours: tue+ fri 10-18, wed + thu 16 to 19, or on demand.<o></o>
<o></o>
Tel: 030-56730035<o></o>
E- Mail: uscob@freenet.de<o></o>

[SCHUPO]

Rob,

Go to the flea markets on Saturday. There is a very good one down by the river fairly close to the Brandenburg Gate. Ask about the others at your hotel. You can always go to the East side of the gate and buy from the street vendors. Just haggle for what you want and don't buy the tourist junk.

The places the others have mentioned are great to see and you can get around fairly well by trolly or subway.

[Mike G.]

Rob,

Another site you might like to visit is the bridge that led from the American Sector of what formerly was West Berlin, into Potsdam. The bridge is where U-2 Pilot Gary Powers was exchanged.

[Soviet]

What is the name of this bridge Michael?

[Rob Brown]

I saw that on a documentary once, looked really interesting how they exchanged him with Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher at the Glienicke Bridge (oder Brucke). I may and try and visit that and take a few snaps. I wonder if there is a plaque there to commenomrate that exchange?