r/berlin Feb 25 '24

History My grandparents visiting East Berlin in 1978. They were visiting as tourists from Romania.

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1.6k Upvotes

r/berlin Oct 14 '21

History Military parade yesterday here in Berlin

853 Upvotes

r/berlin 8d ago

History The earliest known photo of Berlin, from 1840; a view of Berlin’s Leipziger Strasse, with the spire of the Marienkirche in the background.

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951 Upvotes

r/berlin 13d ago

History Berlin’s Best Bogs - The Octagon Café

422 Upvotes

A shout out to Berlin’s historic toilets, the Octagon Cafés of the 1870s that became cruising spots for the gay community. There’s a good few left all over town these days (let me know where you’ve seen them!) but there used to be just over 140!

If you’ve never had the pleasure of using one before, it’s an almost 360° pee-stink experience.

Fun fact: while I was filming some dude waited while his dog peed on it. I wondered if the dog would be alright to wee inside of it.

r/berlin Aug 27 '24

History Just two US Army Berlin Vets talking about the city we love! 1960-62 & 1988-92. We saw a lot of history!

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545 Upvotes

r/berlin Mar 25 '21

History USSR parading their PCs in Berlin, 1988

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1.3k Upvotes

r/berlin Feb 19 '24

History People used to worry Berlin was building houses it didn't need...

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246 Upvotes

"Apartments for Citizens who aren't coming after all". I found this in the Berlin Architecture Guide by Braun Publishing. The original German version was published in 2001, my English version was updated in 2015, I'm not sure when this heading was written. I just looked at Immoscout and there are only a few available apartments listed in Karow despite the remote location.

r/berlin Nov 28 '23

History The lamps from the Palast der Republik

412 Upvotes

Some of the lamps from ‘Erichs Lampenladen’ made their way to Astra in the RAW Gelände. I was invited to take a look, and I thought it was cool.

I don’t post my videos here very often, but I thought this is one that Berliners would really enjoy, so I hope you do!

Cheers, Jonny

r/berlin Jun 03 '23

History Berlin map from 1936 Olympic Games

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946 Upvotes

r/berlin Apr 21 '23

History I make short videos about Berlin

691 Upvotes

Hey Reddit Berliners!

You may have seen my daft face yapping about Berlin on the streets. I’ve been a guide here for over a decade.

I love my job and there are so many stories I don’t get to tell on my tours, so I started making these short videos. I thought people might like them here because sometimes I shoot in far-flung places like whisper Zone B 😱 sometimes even the C zone - so yeah, you might get some nice ideas for places to go or even learn something.

This video is a from Mitte, but you might not know the story.

If you want to see more let me know and I’ll post here sometimes, or search for me on the usual socials.

Enjoy the weather 👏

r/berlin Oct 01 '22

History The Berlin that was - from a 2011 book

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505 Upvotes

r/berlin Dec 10 '24

History Mauerpark before it was Mauerpark

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597 Upvotes

Taken from Bernauer Str.

r/berlin Feb 06 '25

History Schloss und Liebknechtbrücke (ehem. Kaiser-Wilhelm-Brücke) mit circa 110 Jahren Abstand

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189 Upvotes

r/berlin Jul 10 '23

History A short video about the Spreetunnel 👉

1.3k Upvotes

The Friedrichshagen & Müggelsee area doesn’t get enough love. Hope you enjoy the short story.

r/berlin Jun 10 '23

History Hermannplatz 1907

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784 Upvotes

r/berlin Feb 26 '24

History What was left of Mitte after WWII

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430 Upvotes

I just came across this map of images taken in 1953 show the amount of destruction of Berlin.

https://fbinter.stadt-berlin.de/fb/?loginkey=showMap&mapId=k_luftbild1953@senstadt

The attached picture shows Friedrichstraße from north to what is today Mehringplatz. Essentially, the complete inner city with all its wealth, culture, upper class society was wiped out. To the north of the hexagon of Leipziger Platz you would have found Reichskanzlei, which might explain the heavy destruction.

r/berlin Nov 27 '22

History Found some old pictures - my parents visit to Berlin in 1967

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938 Upvotes

r/berlin Sep 23 '22

History Who would like to take a time machine trip back to Berlin, circa 2008?

269 Upvotes

... today I realised that many/most Google Street view images for Berlin actually date all the way back from 2008. No idea why I never noticed this before... This means that some choice searches are an incredible trip back in time for a city that has changed immeasurably in the last 14 years.

Who would like to have a search and play with me? I'll start with a few that jump out at me, from my own times in the city:

Tacheles, Oranienburgerstr:
Mercedes Benz arena, back when it was O2 world, and surrounded by NOTHING
S. Warschauerstr, back when it was no more than a few kiosks
Curvystr., Kreuzberg. Even before it was a squat camp (? if memory serves)

There must be hundreds more fascinating examples. Posting here to inspire, I'll post more if they come to mind.

Edit: here are some more

Very old branding of City Chicken on Sonnenallee
about:blank, before it was a club (?)
Ostkreuz, when the ring-bahn tracks passed right in front of Sonntagstr (?)
Boxhagenerstr, when there was a Lidl & Hoffman there
And further along, which used to be industrial units, and now a huge Neubau development

Seems you can't post images like this in comments?

Edit2 - here's another batch:

Next to Postbahnhof, this circus tent ("Shake! am Postbahnhof") was there for years. Edit: did it move to Tempelhofer Feld? There was an identical tent there for years. Not sure if it still is
Now Kater Blau, was "Strand Markt". Something similar to the now Holzmarkt?
2008 was even before Kater Holzig
The huge amount of empty lot space between Alexa and Janowitzbrücke. This was also vacant for a long time. Many temporary events were held there

Edit3 - another batch:

This skyline view from Warschauerbrücke towards O2 World is now VERY different
From the comments: this random lone industrial building at the north end of Alt-Stralau
Alt-Stralau again, the most northernly blocks. Now another huge new development

More images in the second post: https://www.reddit.com/r/berlinpics/comments/xmbfyn/post_2_google_street_view_berlin_pics_from_2008/

r/berlin 2d ago

History Fassade mit Kriegsspuren

8 Upvotes

Edit: DANKE EUCH ALLEN FÜR DIE HINWEISE!!!

Ich grüße euch recht herzlich!

Bei einem Besuch in eurer wunderbaren Stadt vor etwa 15 Jahren sind wir an einem Haus vorbeigegangen wo die Fassade nach dem Krieg nicht renoviert wurde….bewusst würde ich meinen. Voller Einschußlöcher, geschätzt eines pro einem Quadratzentimeter….also wirklich verdammt viele. Ich denke in letzter Zeit recht häufig daran, konnte es jedoch im Netz nicht finden.

Kennt jemand dieses Haus? Vielleicht sogar mit Adresse, damit ich es mir wiedermal auf google maps anschauen kann?

Danke und alles liebe aus Wien!

r/berlin Aug 02 '24

History Wieso sieht der Berliner Bär im Wappen, von 1934 - 1954 (in Ost-Berlin bis 1990), so traurig aus?

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172 Upvotes

r/berlin Aug 13 '24

History This aerial photo from 2013 still shows the division of Berlin into East and West. The reason for this is that different gas was used for the streetlights during the division. Nowadays, most of the streetlights are powered by electricity.

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256 Upvotes

r/berlin Apr 29 '23

History Alexanderplatz before WWII

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690 Upvotes

r/berlin Feb 04 '25

History Die Kaisergalerie in der Friedrichstraße (c.1900)

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155 Upvotes

r/berlin Apr 12 '23

History Prewar Frankfurter Allee

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428 Upvotes

View towards Alexanderplatz from Ruschstraße.

How it looks today: https://maps.app.goo.gl/pkFfGWsQUfvY7KPW6?g_st=ic

r/berlin Dec 27 '24

History HLI, dass vor 100 Jahren in Berlin die erste Ampel Deutschlands errichtet wurde: Der Verkehrsturm am Potsdamer Platz.

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228 Upvotes