Five hour private van tour
– max 6 person group
900€ ($970/£805)
includes 19% VAT, guide fee, booking fee, admin fee, transportation and driver costs, and tourism insurances.
Our Republic Of Fear Tour can start whenever and wherever is best for you – at your accommodation or elsewhere.
Explore what life in the Workers’ and Peasants’ paradise of East Germany was like; examine the reality of utopian socialism up to the ‘Fall of the Wall’ – the phenomenon of Marxism-Leninism in practice – and the curious collapse of this single-party Soviet satellite state.
Consider not only the normalcy that grew in the shadow of the Wall and under the watchful eye of the infamous East German state police – the STASI – but the many tragedies of those who in their rejection of this ‘Republic of Fear’ sought to escape and met their deaths.
…the former East German secret police headquarters, the remaining sections of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Karl Marx Allee, Alexanderplatz, the former East German government quarter, and much more…
From spy novel tropes to Kennedy’s famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech: no city epitomises the Cold War as much as Berlin.
Here, East and West – capitalism and communism – clashed within the narrow confines of the city, leaving their marks on buildings, streets, and on the lives of countless ordinary Berliners.
This tour considers not just history with a capital-H, but also the stories of life (and of lives uprooted) on either side of the Wall.
Hear about a society that deemed itself a workers’ paradise while waging a war of surveillance on its citizens, about subcultures carving out their own little niches of freedom, and about the events that ultimately led to the fall of the Wall.
Berlin’s pivotal role on the frontline of the ideological conflict played out between East and West during the Cold War period is undeniable. There is no greater symbol of the absurdity of the era – and the atmosphere of paranoia, secrecy & fear that permeated the city for much of the 20th century – than that of the Berlin Wall. Still scattered across the cityscape in minor pieces.
Carved into two competing zones, Berlin became a truly stage managed city – with each side seeking to prove the supremacy of their system. The glamourous individualistic excesses of West Berlin standing in contrast to the planned economy utopianism of the East. The city grew to become the playground for numerous international intelligence agencies vying for control – Berliners struggled alongside various plotting acronyms and government actors – the CIA, MI6, the KGB, the STASI and the BND.
While what normality that existed was played out in the looming shadow of The Bomb.
This Republic Of Fear tour explores the story of life in the workers’ and peasants’ paradise of East Berlin.
Addressing the many aspects of life behind the Iron Curtain, the realities of living in a Marxist-Leninist single-party Soviet satellite state – exploring the Alexanderplatz central square, the famous TV Tower (Fernsehturm) and Weltzeituhr (World Clock), the impressive Karl Marx Allee boulevard and famous Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood. But also visiting the remaining sections of the Berlin Wall in the city to discuss the many escapes and unfortunate deaths on the border, as the East German government sought to stop its population from fleeing to the West.
British author John le Carré famously said that the “secret services were the only real measure of a nation’s political health, the only real expression of its subconscious”. A major highlight of the tour is the unique opportunity to explore the former Stasi headquarters – the inner sanctum of the East German Secret State Police.
Alexanderplatz
The Former East German Government Quarter
The Weltzeituhr (World Clock)
Site of the East German Parliament
Unter den Linden
The North Korean Embassy
Potsdamer Platz
The Site of the 1953 East German Uprising
The Tränenpalast (Palace of Tears)
The Former Geisterbahnhof (Ghost Station) at Nordbahnhof
The Berlin Wall Documentation Centre
The Site of Tunnel 57
The Site of the Conrad Schumann Escape
The Site of the first Berlin Wall Death
The Preserved ‘Death Strip’ On Bernauer Strasse
The Former Bornholmer Straße Crossing – The Bösebrücke
Eberswalder Straße/Dimitroffstraße
The Prenzlauer Berg Neighbourhood
Karl-Marx-Allee (formerly Stalin Allee)
The East German Secret Police Headquarters (Stasi Museum)
The Oberbaumbrücke Border Crossing
The Soviet Memorial In Treptower Park
The East Side Gallery
We will not only examine the physical remnants of this era but also discuss the myths and realities of this period.
Why is Berlin the capital of Germany?
Was the Fall of the Berlin Wall an accident?
Was East Germany part of the Soviet Union?
What was Checkpoint Charlie?
Did East Germany have nuclear weapons?
What was the East German government plan for Day X?
Was the Stasi the largest secret police organisation in history?
How many people escaped to West Berlin?
How many people died trying to escape from East Germany?
Was Angela Merkel an East German spy?
Was the Currywurst invented in Berlin?
Was the Döner Kebab invented in Berlin?
Was East Germany a Communist country?
Was the East German Stasi worse than the Nazi Gestapo?
What is special about Berlin’s pedestrian traffic lights?
Did US President JFK call himself a jam donut in Berlin?
Has German reunification been a success?
Did anyone escape across the Berlin Wall to the East?
Did West Berliners help East Berliners escape?
What was Coca-Colonisation?
What was the Berlin Airlift?
What was the Bridge of Spies?
Why are there so many Japanese cherry blossoms in Berlin?
What remains of the Berlin Wall?
Was anyone ever sent to prison because of the Berlin Wall?
What happened to the East German secret police?
The first step in booking any of our tours is to get in touch – either by email (info@berlinexperiences.com) or by using the contact box below.
What sort of tour/s are you interested in? Have you already booked your accomodation and would like your tour to start there? How many days are you staying in Berlin and would you like to book multiple tours?
Once we have received your initial request we will get back in touch within 24-48hrs with further details and a proposal for your trip.
Bookings for the high season (May-December) need to be paid in full in advance – we accept VISA/Mastercard/Paypal/Bank Transfer and plenty of other forms of payment.
Ostseestrasse 77,
Prenzlauer Berg,
Berlin 10409
