In the Forbidden City - Potsdam City Tour

The popular 2.5-hour city tour takes you into a largely unknown past: large parts of the city of Potsdam were a restricted area – no Potsdam resident had access. The tour starts at the Glienicke Bridge, which became world-famous as the "Bridge of Spies." During the Cold War, agents were exchanged here between East and West, as the bridge marked the border between the GDR and the American sector in West Berlin. Until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the bridge was a strictly secured restricted area. A few years ago, the Hollywood film "Bridge of Spies" starring Tom Hanks was filmed on the bridge. Along the shoreline, which was previously built up with the border installations of the Berlin Wall, the path leads to the UNESCO World Heritage Park Neuer Garten. For the Potsdam Conference in the summer of 1945, the park and Cecilienhof Palace were closed to the public. The most powerful heads of state of the time came to Potsdam: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, US President Harry S. Truman, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The conference marked an endpoint of World War II, but at the same time, it was also a starting point for the Cold War. Finally, the city tour leads to the neighborhood adjacent to the Neuer Garten, which for almost five decades was Military Town No. 7 – a Forbidden City. It was one of the most important intelligence locations for the Soviets during the Cold War. Here, among other things, was the headquarters of the military counterintelligence of the KGB in Germany, as well as a notorious investigative prison. During the city tour, guests will learn more about the work and life in this Forbidden City. The tour ends at the memorial site on Leistikowstraße. An individual visit to the memorial is possible afterwards.