7. Historical Bus Tour of Berlin by VW Bus
Experience an exclusive guided Tour through Berlin and learn the history and meaning of the most important tourist attractions. The city of Berlin is like an open history book, where important events in German and international history can be explored and understood firsthand.
This tour starts in medieval Berlin on Mühlendamm, which linked the cities of Cölln and Berlin in the 13th century. Passing by the Nikolaiviertel, the Rotes Rathaus, and St. Mary's Church, head to Berlin Cathedral, which houses the impressive Hohenzollern Crypt. From here you can see the golden dome of the New Synagogue on Oranienburger Straße, located near the Scheunenviertel, the former center of Jewish life in Berlin. Continuing along Unter den Linden with its magnificent buildings, you’ll reach Gendarmenmarkt, one of the most beautiful squares in the city and the location of the German and French Cathedrals.
At the Brandenburg Gate, the focus of the tour changes to the Third Reich. When Hitler marched through the gate towards the Reich Chancellery on Wilhelmstraße on 30 January 1933, the Jewish painter Max Liebermann, who lived directly next to the Brandenburg Gate, saw the torchlight procession and said: “I cannot eat much, as I would like to vomit."
You’ll then head to the former government district, passing by Konrad Adenauer’s office, where he hid from the Nazis in 1933. You’ll also see the remains of Goebbels’ Propaganda Ministry, which is now part of the Federal Ministry of Labor, before reaching the memorial to Georg Elser, who meticulously planned but failed to bomb Hitler in the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich. You’ll then end this section of the tour at the Topography of Terror, situated at the former Gestapo headquarters, where the SS leadership and the Reich Security Head Office were located.
The tour then continues by bus, exploring the division of the city after 1961. Visit Checkpoint Charlie, see the former border crossing at Friedrichstraße station with the Tränenpalast, and see the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Straße.