Berlin's city walls

Everybody knows the famous Berlin wall, but the German capital  had actually four city walls. None of them still exists, but you can still find remains or discover their traces.

Medieval town wall
The first one was erected during medieval times, you can still find a large piece of it in Klosterstrasse, near the Restaurant “Zur Letzten Instanz". 

  U Bahn:  U2 (Klosterstraße) 

  the medieval wall in Klosterstraße is the oldest of Berlin's city walls

The Fortress

The second wall belonged to a fortress that was built by the order of the “Great Elector" Frederick William (1620-1688) shortly after the 30 Years' War.
Contruction of it began in 1658. The fortress was torn down in 1744. A tower of it, the Wusterhausener Bär, still exists in Köllnischer Park.
 U2 (Märkisches Museum)

 

the Wusterhausener Bär

The Customs Wall

The third wall in Berlin was the Berlin Customs Wall (Berliner Zoll-und Akzisemauer). It came into being from 1737 onwards and consisted of 14 gates. Only the Brandenburger Gate is left of it. The other gates were torn down between 1866. Some places like Rosenthaler Tor, Schlesisches Tor, Kottbusser Tor and Hallesches Tor indicate that there was once a gate. You can see a reconstruction of a piece of the old customs wall at Stresemannstraße.
  S -Bahn: S1, S2, S25 (Anhalter Bahnhof)

                                                      a piece of the customs wall at Stresemannstraße
                          

The Berlin Wall

The fourth  city wall in Berlin was the Berlin Wall. Construction of it began on 13. August 1961 in order to prevent people leaving the GDR. The border between East and West Germany was already closed in 1952, so people often travelled to East Berlin only to cross the still open border to West Berlin. This was prevented with the building of that wall. The wall separated Berlin for over 28 years. On 9. November 1989 it fell.

piece of the Berlin wall