City Tours by feet, for groups

Potsdam – how has it been in GDR times?
- by feet and with public transport

On this tour we focus on the recently past times of the GDR (German Democratic Republic). In the actual Parliament on Brauhausberg had been installed the district headquarter of the socialist party SED. In town were situated the buildings of the ÒStaatssicherheitÓ (state security service) and the "LindenhotelÓ, their prison for people awaiting trial. The city castle and the garrison church, characterizing images in the townscape, were considered as symbols of Prussian militarism and therefore had to give way in the 1960s. The garrison church was blasted, an event that was not permitted to be photographed by Potsdamers. The debate about the past communist times is echoed in the actual discussion about the reconstruction of the city castle. In the north of Potsdam, between ÒPfingstbergÓ Hill and New Garden was located the "Forbidden Town", citizens could enter again only after the GDR's end. Today you discover an exclusive residential area over there; hardly imaginable that once the Soviet Secret Service in Germany used to have one of its headquarters in this area.