Berlin Sidetrip Question

I have been only to the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial on Genslerstrasse (if that's the site you mean). It was fascinating. To see the prison area itself you must take a tour; it begins with a film. English tours are offered. If for some reason the tour timing doesn't work for you, there is a museum-like area with well-described (in English) displays that duplicate some of the information provided on the tour. I'm a Cold War junkie, so I spent at least 3 hours at the site and could have used more time in the museum. The location is a bit obscure. You take a tram and then walk a good way (basically straight down a cross street), so check directions before you go.

Given the amount of time you plan to spend in Berlin and your hope to include Leipzig on the same side trip as Wittenburg, I feel comfortable recommending the Berlin site even without having seen the one in Leipzig.

While in Berlin you might also be interested in the House at Checkpoint Charlie which can be extremely crowded (late afternoon might be better) but has some interesting displays and much explanatory material (generally also in English) about escape attempts.

In addition, there is the Tränenpalast, which has very illuminating displays that document the experience of West Germans funneled through that checkpoint when the regime deigned to allow visits to their East Berlin relatives.

Thanks! The Stasi site I had in mind was the actual headquarters (Erich Mielke's office), but this site you mentioned looks interesting!

I haven't been to the Berlin museum, but the Leipzig one is very interesting. The office environment is kept as much as possible as it was during the Communist era, with the addition of a genuine cell that was moved in from another building (as the HQ itself never accomodated prisoners) and the physical and documentary displays. The labelling and documentary exhibits are only in (sometimes very difficult legal and political) German, but there is a very good audio guide available in English.

Here is another vote for Leipzig. The city itself is very interesting with a long history and a must visit for any music lover (Bach worked here for most of his life). And anybody interested in how the Cold War ended. Remember it was also here where the Monday demonstrations were key to bringing down the Wall. The Nikolai Church was the incubator for that. The Stasi museum "Runde Ecke" (that means "round corner") is fascinating. I speak German but my Canadian friends commented that the English audio guide is very good.

I drove from Berlin to a place called Bad Steben (roughly half-way between Berlin and Munich), stopping at Wittenberg along the way, and then did Leipzig as a day trip the next day from Bad Steben. For me, it would have been hard to do both in a day because of my degree of interest in Leipzig, but I think it depends on how deeply you want to delve into both places and on your level of endurance. If traveling by train, it would take about an hour to get to Wittenberg from Berlin Hbf (including 10-15 bus ride from Wittenberg train station to the Altstadt), another hour to get to Leipzig (train station within walking distance of most sites), and then 80 minutes to get back to Berlin Hbf. If you got a really early start (8-9 am train to Wittenberg?) and returned late (7-8 pm train out of Leipzig?), you could probably pull it off, if you are okay with just hitting major highlights in each place. I thought the Stasi Museum in Leipzig was quite good. As mentioned above, it is definitely worth springing for the audio guide (though they want to hold onto an ID/passport to make sure they get their device back -- that's ok with me but I have heard others complain about it). It closes at 6 pm, so you would want to be there at least by 5.

Leipzig has many interesting sites to recommend it. First is the Saint Thomas Church where Bach is buried. He served as organist and choirmaster at St. Thomas for more than 30 years. There is a Bach Museum very near by. Also, their famous Boys Choir may be performing at a Sunday service. You can check the dates online at their website.
Second is the Nicolai Church, an impressive Romanesque structure begun in 1165. In the latter part of the Cold War a small group of church women began meeting on Monday nights for Candlelight prayer services at the church. These vigils, over a period of about a year, evolved into peaceful Monday night Candlelight Marches with hundreds of thousands of East German people participating. These marches led directly to the Wall's demise. One more suggestion : visiting these two wonderful churches will probably take some time and you may be hungry after your touring. Visit the Auerbach's Kellar restaurant and have lunch or dinner in the place where Goethe set his classic confrontation between Faust and Mephistopheles (Satan). There are murals on some of the walls of the restaurant depicting this scene.

Hi,

Between Berlin and Leipzig is Lutherstadt Wittenberg, which you could see in the morning 3-4 hrs. By 1330 or so, you can be in Leipzig, stay until 2000, time wise in the summer very doable.