Cold War sites: Berlin and its infamous wall are the epicenter for Cold War tourism, but there are plenty of other sites around Germany that portray the tension between east and west after World War II.
SRA GLENDA PELLUM
Barabarastollen: This is a huge underground archive, located in a disused mine near Freiburg im Breisgau, intended to preserve Germany's cultural heritage from possible disasters.
Joergens.mi
Barabarastollen: The collection, hidden under 400 meters of rock, holds microfilms with about 900 million images from German records and museums.
Joergens.mi
Marienborn: The checkpoint Helmstedt-Marienborn was once the largest and most important border crossing on the inner German border. It was the shortest land route between West Germany and West Berlin.
Vincent de Groot
Marienborn: The infrastructure to process all that traffic was massive, but it has been restored as a free museum with a rest area and restaurant by the side of Autobahn 2.
Wikimedia Commons
Government Bunker: This is a massive underground complex once intended to house the West German government in case of Soviet invasion or even atomic war.
AxelHH
Government Bunker: It was built inside two railway tunnels between 1960 and 1972 and decommissioned in 1997, but its secret interior is now open to visitors.
Holger.Ellgaard
Modlareuth: This isa small German village that was divided by the front line of Cold War Europe. The wall separating the two halves of Mödlareuth went up in 1966, five years after the Berlin one.
Roehrensee
Autobahn airfields: An unsuspecting strip of concrete next to the roaring traffic on Autobahn 29 was where massive C-130 Hercules transport planes and A-10 Thunderbolt fighter planes landed and took off during NATO exercise "Highway 84" in 1984.
TSGT ROD PROUTY
Haus der Geschichte: This museum, set in a spacious modern building in the former West German capital of Bonn, is one of the best places in Germany to learn about the history of the FRG and GDR and what followed after reunification.
Jpetersen
Haus der Geschichte: Its fascinating permanent exhibitions contain US Jeeps, so-called Rosinenbomber (Raisin Bomber) aircraft that were used during the Berlin Blockade in 1948, and iconic cars from both sides of the Iron Curtain -- the VW Beetle and the Trabant.
Wolkenkratzer
Grenzhus Schlagdorf: The "Border House Schlagdorf" is located near Lübeck and features a memorial site and museum with a section of the former inner German border between the Baltic Sea and the River Elbe.
MrsMyer
Probstzella: The Probstzella station in Thuringia was used as a GDR border checkpoint from 1949 to 1990 and was where many train journeys from the west halted.
Starfix
Observation Post Alpha: This was a lookout post for the west to scan east. It overlooked the famous Fulda Gap -- one of the main potential invasion routes for Warsaw Pact troops.
Nickel van Duijvenboden
Pattonville: This is a large housing area built by the US Army just north of Stuttgart on the site of a former United States Air Force base.
Pluds
Zweiländermuseum Rodachtal: The partition of Germany also deeply affected people living in rural areas away from the international spotlight. The Zweiländermuseum Rodachtal charts events away from the glare of Berlin.
Zweilandermuseum Rodachtal
Raketenstation Hombroich: This former NATO missile base atHombroich near Neuss has been transformed into an art gallery and cultural center.