I am a WWII history buff and I was exicted to come on this trip because Berlin is where WWII ended with the Battle of Berlin in 1945. When you travel around Berlin, you still see many scars of the battle and bombings that occured in the city.
For example, The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Chuch (also known as the “Broken Church”)which is located right in front of the Europa Center was destroied in a bombing raid in 1943.
Berlin is also full of Cold War history which started in 1947 at the end of WWII and lasted until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. One of the things that we saw was an old NSA listening post in a wooded area near Grunewald that was used during the Cold War.
The second Cold War historical site that I visted was Checkpoint Charlie. The Western Allies came up with this name for the best known Berlin Wall crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. It was closed when the Berlin Wall came down. Today, the guard house is still there and there is a Checkpoint Charlie Museum. I was able to get an authenticated piece of the Berlin Wall.
