Only tiny fragments of the edifice survive. There’s a short, grafitti-covered stretch at Mühlenstrasse, complete with a gift shop selling authenticated chunks of Wall — but there’s little chance that American singer David Hasselhof will ever scale the masonry again for a performance of his German hits. Berlin suffered for long enough.
Instead, this month there’s a city-wide Festival of Freedom (mauerfall09.de/en) culminating on 9 November with the toppling of giant foam dominos stacked along the route of the fortifications that once encircled West Berlin.
Alternatively, you could cycle the Berliner Mauerweg (mauerweg.com), a signposted orbital trail some 100 miles long, or visit the interactive DDR Museum (Karl-Liebknecht-Str.1, ddr-museum.de), which includes a mock-up of a typical East Berlin apartment.
Or choose from our pick of off-the-wall ways to celebrate this special anniversary. Close to the infamous Checkpoint Charlie, the newly refurbished Westin Grand (+49 (0)30 20 270, westin.com/berlin) has a section of the Wall in its grounds, from which guests can chip out souvenir pieces. (Read John Simpson on Berlin)
The Grand Hyatt (+49 (0)30 25 53 12 34, berlin.grand.hyatt.com) offers five-star luxury a stone’s throw from the pulsating commercial square Potsdamer Platz, which was divided in two and left desolate by the Berlin Wall. For a taste of life in the GDR, check into Ostel (+49 (0)30 25 76 86 60, ostel.eu), Germany’s first GDR-themed design hotel. Opened in 2007, it’s still the height of Ossie retrokitsch. Hidden behind the Ostbahnhof, each Communist-era room has a picture of East German leader Erich Honecker hanging above the beds. Or spend the night sleeping with one eye open in the Stasi suite, fitted with bugging devices like those used by the secret police.
Created by a group of friends and run co-op style, Michelberger Hotel (+49 (0)30 29 77 85 90, michelbergerhotel.com) specialises in low-cost chic. Set in an East Berlin industrial building, every room is done out like a downtown designer pad.
The East Side City Hotel (+49 (0)30 29 38 34 00, eastsidehotel.de) offers an art-filled minimalist place to stay across the street from the East Side Gallery, one of the few remaining sections of the Wall. Once known as the Death Strip, thanks to its efficient Soviet guards, it’s now an open-air gallery. Hotel guests can admire the spray-can art from their beds through bull’s-eye windows.
In a former department store near the Wall, one of the area’s few large buildings still standing in 1945, is Kunsthaus Tacheles (+49 (0)30 28 26 185, tacheles.de), a unique and vibrant performance art space with a cinema, restaurant and cocktail bar. Sip an amazing Manhattan while watching a man with a welding torch sculpt old bicycles into a Tyrannosaurus rex.
Tucked away in a factory by the Schillingbrücke — another former Wall checkpoint — the grey, industrial setting suits Maria am Ostbahnhof (+49 (0)30 21 23 81 90, clubmaria.de), a cavernous, unprettified Friedrichshain institution. Here, electronica, punk and reggae rule.
Dominated by Berlin’s smart set, the Watergate Club (+49 (0)30 61 28 03 96, >water-gate.de) is split over two levels beneath the Oberbaumbrücke, a major landmark which served as a pedestrian border crossing in the Wall. Today, fans of hard house are drawn by the sleek décor, low lighting and glassfront views of the river Spree and its shoreline architecture.
