[TREAD] The Watchtowers of the Berlin Wall.
We have commemorated this week the 59th (sad) anniversary of the erection of the Berlin Wall. It has now nearly totally disappeared inside the city of Berlin. 160 km long, it included 302 #Watchtowers. Only a few remain in #Berlin.

Inside the boundaries of the city of #Berlin, only a dozen of the Berlin Wall #watchtowers remain. I have found them and will show them here. Maybe I have forgotten some. Please, tell me. Some others still stand at Potsdam or Hohen Neuendorf... but they are not inside Berlin.

For this journey into the past, sometimes close to an #urbex trip, I have consulted many sources including the excellent blog of @iamkosmonaut. Now, enjoy the #watchtowers of #Berlin!

1. The best known: the tower at Bernauer Strasse, at the #Berlin Wall Memorial. Built after 1975, it has been dismantled and rebuilt here in 2009 (the memorial is recent). This is not its original location. #Watchtower not accessible to visit.

2. Tower at Potsdamer Platz. Built after 1966. Its fate has been long uncertain. Now, since 2001, it is protected. One of the few #Berlin #Wall remnants not far from the center of the city. #Watchtower accessible to visit.

3. Tower at Kieler Eck. Gedenkstätte Günter Liftin. Built after 1961. Protected since 1995, it now contains a small museum. Dedicated to Günter Liftin, one of the 1st victims of the #Berlin Wall. Now completely surrounded by buildings. #Watchtower open to visit.

4. Tower at Mühlenstrasse. Built in 1961 on the top of a mill silo, along the Spree, close to Oberbaumbrücke. You can see it on the top of the building. #Watchtower not accessible to visit. #Berlin

5. Tower at Schlesischer Busch. Built in the late 1970s when the border strip here has been expanded. Located Am Flutgraben, it is protected since 1992. #Watchtower accessible to visit. #Berlin

6. Towers at the Stasi prison at Hohenschönhausen. There are 3 towers here. The site has been managed by the Stasi from 1961 to 1989-90. The prison is a memorial since 1992. #Watchtowers not accessible to visit, even if the former prison is. #Berlin

7. Tower at Neumagener Strasse. Built in 1970. Was part of a Stasi site at #Berlin-Weissensee. Listed, but in a bad shape, in an area of squatters. #Watchtower not (officially) accessible to visit. #urbex

8. Tower at Berlin-Rahnsdorf. Also named the Dzierzynski Tower, because was part of a Stasi so-named commando in Erkner in charge of protecting strategic sites. Built in 1961. Located at Fürstenwalder Allee. #Watchtower not accessible to visit. #Berlin

9. Tower at Johannistal, at the VEB Kühlautomat. This #watchtower is located inside the premices of a DDR factory (fridges and cooling systems) that has been built on the location of the 1st airport of #Berlin at Johannistal. Built in 1970. Nowadays, the site in in ruins.

I won’t be able to post a picture of this #watchtower as it was not accessible for security reasons. This pic has been taken by @iamkosmonaut. For more details, his excellent blog:
http://digitalcosmonaut.com/2015/the-watch … I thank him for all his ideas of #urbex trips and much more in #Berlin.

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of the few last remaining #watchtowers of the #Berlin Wall. Your turn to pay them a visit, remembering these are traces of an oppression system not so far from us in time... RIP to all Berlin Wall victims.