Trabi Safari Self-Drive Sightseeing Tour Berlin

Checkpoint Charlie, the starting point

The Trabi safari starts at Zimmerstraße, a few steps from Checkpoint Charlie, the most famous crossing point of the Berlin Wall. From 1961 to 1990 it was the gate between the American and Soviet sectors on Friedrichstraße, used by diplomats, Allied soldiers and foreign visitors. In October 1961 American and Soviet tanks stood face to face here for sixteen tense hours, one of the most dangerous moments of the Cold War.

Today a replica of the small guardhouse, sandbags and the famous sign announcing that you are leaving the American sector mark the spot, with open-air panels telling the story of the Wall nearby. How to get to Checkpoint Charlie is simple: take the U6 to Kochstraße, the station right beside it. Arrive a little early to look around before your technical briefing.

The Trabant, the car of East Germany

The Trabant was built in Zwickau, in East Germany, from 1957 to 1991, and for decades it was the car most East German families dreamed of owning, often after waiting more than ten years for delivery. Its body was made of Duroplast, a hard plastic reinforced with cotton fibres, and its tiny two-stroke engine produced about 26 horsepower, with a distinctive rattle and a cloud of blue smoke.

Before you set off, the team explains the gear lever mounted on the dashboard, the choke and the clutch, which feel very different from a modern car. After the first corners most drivers are hooked. Is the Trabi safari worth it? For anyone curious about life behind the Iron Curtain, driving the car that became the symbol of German reunification in 1989 is a unique way to see Berlin.

Potsdamer Platz

The convoy rolls west to Potsdamer Platz, which in the 1920s was one of the busiest squares in Europe, with Germany's first traffic light tower directing trams, buses and cars. The war and the building of the Wall turned it into a wasteland in the death strip between East and West, and for nearly thirty years almost nothing stood here.

After reunification the square was rebuilt as a showcase of modern architecture, with glass office towers, a glass-roofed plaza with a tent-like canopy and a few preserved segments of the Wall on the pavement. As you drive through, the guide points out where the border ran, marked today by a double line of cobblestones in the road, which you will see again along the route.

Brandenburg Gate and Unter den Linden

The route then passes the Brandenburg Gate, the neoclassical city gate built between 1788 and 1791 and crowned by the Quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses. During the division of the city it stood in no man's land, cut off from both sides, and in November 1989 crowds climbed onto the Wall in front of it to celebrate. It is the best-known symbol of Berlin and of German unity.

From the gate the grand boulevard of Unter den Linden runs east under its lime trees, past embassies, the State Opera and the Humboldt University, towards Museum Island. The gate itself is closed to traffic, so the convoy drives past it, giving you a view framed by the windscreen of your Trabant, an unusual photo for your album of Berlin.

Berlin Cathedral, the Red City Hall and the TV Tower

On Museum Island the convoy passes the Berlin Cathedral, the great domed Protestant church completed in 1905, before crossing into the old centre of East Berlin. Here stands the Red City Hall, the seat of the mayor of Berlin, built in red brick in the 1860s and named after its colour, not its politics, though it served as the East Berlin city hall during the division.

Above it all rises the TV Tower on Alexanderplatz, 368 metres tall and completed in 1969 as a showpiece of East German engineering. Its silver sphere is visible from almost everywhere in the city and contains a viewing platform at 203 metres. Seeing it from a Trabant, the car that ruled these streets when the tower was new, feels like a trip back to the 1970s.

East Side Gallery and the Oberbaum Bridge

The drive continues along the Spree to the East Side Gallery, the longest surviving section of the Berlin Wall, about 1.3 kilometres long. In 1990 artists from around the world covered its eastern face with murals about freedom, hope and the fall of the Wall, creating the largest open-air gallery in the world. East Side Gallery opening hours are simple: it is outdoors and accessible at any time, and the best time to visit East Side Gallery on foot is early morning, before the crowds.

The convoy then reaches the Oberbaum Bridge, a red-brick double-deck bridge from 1896 with Gothic-style towers, carrying cars below and the U-Bahn above. During the division it was a pedestrian border crossing between Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg. From here the guide leads you back to the start, where you receive your Trabi driving licence.