Berlin · Pankow / Niederschönhausen · Germany

Majakowskiring

streetCold Warhidden gemgoogle verified

easy

5/10

best: morning, afternoon

Cold War, eerie, hidden

A local would say...

The men who built the Wall lived behind their own wall — a quiet suburban ring road in Pankow where you can stroll past the houses of people who imprisoned a nation.

An oval ring road southwest of Schloss Niederschönhausen that served as an exclusive gated enclave for the GDR's apparatchik elite until the 1960s. Walter Ulbricht, the Wall's architect, lived at No. 28; first GDR president Wilhelm Pieck was his neighbour. The street has barely changed since and feels like a preserved time capsule of socialist privilege.