Berlin Tours
General | History | 4 Day Itinerary | View Full Itinerary
The last 100 years or so have been a turbulent time for Berlin. In the early part of the 1900s it was the capital of a new empire that was rapidly growing economically and militarily. It was the centre of a non democratic government, headed up by the Kaiser Wilhelm II
Kaiser Wilhelm II
We will look at the developments in Germany that led to the outbreak of the First World War. Following the success of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, there was an attempted Communist/Spartakist Revolution in Berlin in 1919. By the mid 1920s, Germany settled down with the new democratic Weimar Government.
The balcony of the Berlin Palace, where Karl Liebknecht stood in 1918, announcing a new Free Socialist Republican government.
The early 1920s were also a time of great hardship, with huge war reparations and hyper-inflation. The Wall Street Crash in 1929 brought back the poverty and misery, which allowed Hitler to offer radical solutions to the economic mess of the country.
1933 onwards saw the Nazis take over and quickly eradicate the Weimar Government. They burnt down the Reichstag and blamed the Communists. No evidence links Hitler’s henchmen with this crime!
The Reichstag in the 19th Century. The Reichstag on fire in 1933.
The Nazis constructed buildings to impress, such as the Berlin Stadium, erected in 1936 for the XI Olympic Games. Many people admired Hitler’s achievements, as they didn’t see the suppression that was occurring in the concentration camps and other intimidating organisations that had sprung up in the last three years.
The Entrance to the Stadium The Corridors
The Stadium today, home of Hertha Berlin Football Club, with modern lighting.
On November 9th 1938, during the “Night of Broken Glass” (“Kristallnacht”), members of the SA and the SS set fire to nine of the twelve synagogues in Berlin, looted Jewish-owned shops, and terrorized the Jewish population. Over 1000 were arrested and most taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, which is in the northern suburbs of Oranienburg.
During the Second World War, on January 20 1942, the “Wannsee Conference,” in an SS villa on the Wannsee lake, just outside Berlin, a group of Nazis led by Heydrich, decided on the so-called “final solution for the ‘Jewish question,’- systematic annihilation.
Today, Sachsenhausen is a memorial to all those who died within its walls.
Das Haus am Wannsee
It is seen here in 1942, when Heydrich and the rest of the Nazi gathering arrived at their ‘solution.’ Today this villa is memorial and educational centre. The exterior has changed little.
Towards the end of 1943, the British and American forces began the massive bombing of the Berlin. Around one million residents were evacuated and over 50,000 died.
The Battle for Berlin ended with the suicide of Hitler on April 30th 1945.
The capitulation treaty was signed on the night of May 8 in the officers’ dining hall of an army base in the suburb of Karlshorst.
This is a museum today and was too, in East Berlin, when it was known as ‘The Museum to the Complete Capitulation of Fascist Germany 1941-1945!!
The Reichstag in 1945
Reichstag today, with its new dome designed by Sir Norman Foster.
After the war, much of Berlin is rubble: 600,000 apartments were destroyed, and only 2.8 million of the city’s original population of 4.3 million still lived in the city, which was divided into four sectors and administered jointly by the occupying powers of the USA, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. A large part of the city was in ruins.
In July/August 1945, the so called Big Three met at Potsdam, close to Berlin, to discuss the post war world order! It was at this meeting that Churchill was replaced as PM of Britain by Clement Attlee, Franklin Roosevelt had just died and Truman was now President of the USA. So eventually, it was only Stalin who had actually been his country’s leader during the war, who was there trying to get the best deal for The Soviet Union.
As the Cold War developed, Berlin became an area of high tension. When the Western powers brought in the new Deutsche Mark for their 3 sectors, it triggered a Soviet blockade of the western sectors from June 1948 to May 1949. As Berlin was in the middle of the Russian sector of Germany, Stalin thought he could drive the others out by starvation. They responded with the Berlin Airlift, the supplying of the city by air. Once Russia had its own atomic bomb, in 1949, the blockade was called off. Access to West Berlin through the Soviet occupied zone was difficult.
On 23 May 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was founded from the western sectors. Berlin kept its special status under Allied supervision but Bonn became the provisional capital of West Germany. When the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was founded from the Soviet sector on 7 October 1949, East Berlin became the capital. By 1960, as the East German government policies of reorganization bit and about 200,000 East Germans fled their homes via West Berlin.
The Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall, once so notorious, has disappeared from the reunified Berlin. Memories of the Wall, however, are still very visible, though little remains. Overnight, on 13th August 1961, the GDR’s leaders closed the border to West Berlin, as the stream of refugees leaving East Germany had grown to huge proportions. By August 22nd, crossing points were established – seven on streets and one at a train station – to be used by West Berliners, citizens of West Germany and foreigners. East Berliners and East German citizens were not allowed to cross the border.
John F. Kennedy Fleeing to West Berlin in August 1961
To keep up the morale of the West, U.S. president John F. Kennedy visited the city on June 26th 1963 and in his famous ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ speech in front of the Schöneberg Town Hall assured West Berlin of Western solidarity.
By November 1989, when the Wall came down, well over 100,000 citizens of the GDR had tried to escape across the Wall to the West. The most famous memorial to those who escaped, tried to escape or died escaping, not to mention those who have died and suffered in conflicts worldwide, is the museum ‘Haus am Checkpoint Charlie’.
Further Information.
The Berlin Study Tour is designed to look at the dramatic 20th Century History of this city and to visit some of the many places in the Berlin area that are have important links with the last 100 years. Events that unfolded here have had an influence in both German and World History. The three main conflicts of the 20th Century, the Great War, the Second World War and the Cold War, all have crucial connections to this city.
On this tour we will be visiting many of these historically fascinating and in some cases gruesome places. Knowledge of the happenings of the past and its context, allow tourists to understand what they are seeing with a greater comprehension and feeling. The ghosts of History still haunt the areas they occupied during their lifetimes.
This trip is different to a coach tour as we use the fantastic public transport system to get around the city and its outskirts. In this way, all of our destinations can be reached quickly and traffic jams are avoided! There are no long walks!
Overall, we aim to give you a historic sense of Berlin as well as enabling you to see how the modern city is thriving today. In just under four days, you will see a great deal of this wonderful, yet tragic city, thereby gaining a sense of its spirit and historical importance.
The last 100 years or so have been a turbulent time for Berlin. In the early part of the 1900s it was the capital of a new empire that was rapidly growing economically and militarily. It was the centre of a non democratic government, headed up by the Kaiser Wilhelm II
We will look at the developments in Germany that led to the outbreak of the First World War. Following the success of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, there was an attempted Communist/Spartakist Revolution in Berlin in 1919. By the mid 1920s, Germany settled down with the new democratic Weimar Government.
The balcony of the Berlin Palace, where Karl Liebknecht stood in 1918, announcing a new Free Socialist Republican government.
The early 1920s were also a time of great hardship, with huge war reparations and hyper-inflation. The Wall Street Crash in 1929 brought back the poverty and misery, which allowed Hitler to offer radical solutions to the economic mess of the country.
1933 onwards saw the Nazis take over and quickly eradicate the Weimar Government. They burnt down the Reichstag and blamed the Communists. No evidence links Hitler’s henchmen with this crime!
The Nazis constructed buildings to impress, such as the Berlin Stadium, erected in 1936 for the XI Olympic Games. Many people admired Hitler’s achievements, as they didn’t see the suppression that was occurring in the concentration camps and other intimidating organisations that had sprung up in the last three years.
On November 9th 1938, during the “Night of Broken Glass” (“Kristallnacht”), members of the SA and the SS set fire to nine of the twelve synagogues in Berlin, looted Jewish-owned shops, and terrorized the Jewish population. Over 1000 were arrested and most taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, which is in the northern suburbs of Oranienburg.
During the Second World War, on January 20 1942, the “Wannsee Conference,” in an SS villa on the Wannsee lake, just outside Berlin, a group of Nazis led by Heydrich, decided on the so-called “final solution for the ‘Jewish question,’- systematic annihilation.
It is seen here in 1942, when Heydrich and the rest of the Nazi gathering arrived at their ‘solution.’ Today this villa is memorial and educational centre. The exterior has changed little.
Towards the end of 1943, the British and American forces began the massive bombing of the Berlin. Around one million residents were evacuated and over 50,000 died.
The Battle for Berlin ended with the suicide of Hitler on April 30th 1945.
The capitulation treaty was signed on the night of May 8 in the officers’ dining hall of an army base in the suburb of Karlshorst.
This is a museum today and was too, in East Berlin, when it was known as ‘The Museum to the Complete Capitulation of Fascist Germany 1941-1945!!
After the war, much of Berlin is rubble: 600,000 apartments were destroyed, and only 2.8 million of the city’s original population of 4.3 million still lived in the city, which was divided into four sectors and administered jointly by the occupying powers of the USA, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. A large part of the city was in ruins.
In July/August 1945, the so called Big Three met at Potsdam, close to Berlin, to discuss the post war world order! It was at this meeting that Churchill was replaced as PM of Britain by Clement Attlee, Franklin Roosevelt had just died and Truman was now President of the USA. So eventually, it was only Stalin who had actually been his country’s leader during the war, who was there trying to get the best deal for The Soviet Union.
As the Cold War developed, Berlin became an area of high tension. When the Western powers brought in the new Deutsche Mark for their 3 sectors, it triggered a Soviet blockade of the western sectors from June 1948 to May 1949. As Berlin was in the middle of the Russian sector of Germany, Stalin thought he could drive the others out by starvation. They responded with the Berlin Airlift, the supplying of the city by air. Once Russia had its own atomic bomb, in 1949, the blockade was called off. Access to West Berlin through the Soviet occupied zone was difficult.
On 23 May 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was founded from the western sectors. Berlin kept its special status under Allied supervision but Bonn became the provisional capital of West Germany. When the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was founded from the Soviet sector on 7 October 1949, East Berlin became the capital. By 1960, as the East German government policies of reorganization bit and about 200,000 East Germans fled their homes via West Berlin.
The Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall, once so notorious, has disappeared from the reunified Berlin. Memories of the Wall, however, are still very visible, though little remains. Overnight, on 13th August 1961, the GDR’s leaders closed the border to West Berlin, as the stream of refugees leaving East Germany had grown to huge proportions. By August 22nd, crossing points were established – seven on streets and one at a train station – to be used by West Berliners, citizens of West Germany and foreigners. East Berliners and East German citizens were not allowed to cross the border.
To keep up the morale of the West, U.S. president John F. Kennedy visited the city on June 26th 1963 and in his famous ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ speech in front of the Schöneberg Town Hall assured West Berlin of Western solidarity.
By November 1989, when the Wall came down, well over 100,000 citizens of the GDR had tried to escape across the Wall to the West. The most famous memorial to those who escaped, tried to escape or died escaping, not to mention those who have died and suffered in conflicts worldwide, is the museum ‘Haus am Checkpoint Charlie’.
