A115 highway

Abandoned highway in Berlin

In 1940, the A115, a highway straight through the Düppeler Forst west of Berlin, was built.

Suitable for Explorers with Public transport

Contains Background Information

However, the construction of the Berlin Wall meant the motorway's death knell 20 years later. As the A115 crossed the border between West and East Germany several times, it offered too many escape routes.

The A115 was therefore shifted and, in 1969, made a big curve south of the border zone, a route you follow to this day to enter Berlin. The asphalt on the former stretch of the A115 may have been broken up, but you can still find traces of the motorway.

Viaduct

If you follow the path westwards at the end of the Teerofendamm, you will end up at the first trace of the old A115, a useless bridge complex where the Stammbahn bridged the motorway. The Stammbahn disappeared from the scene after World War II due to heavy war damage.

Teltow Canal

Continuing along the former highway route, you reach the Teltowkanalbrücke. Via this bridge, the A115 crossed the Teltow Canal. The canal was a natural barrier and the border between West Berlin and the GDR.

This can still be seen. At the top of the bridge was the American Checkpoint Bravo. You can still see road markings dating back to that time between the puddles of moss and weeds. After the reconstruction of the A115, the bridge and checkpoint became useless. For more than half a century, cars, buses and trucks have no longer driven there.

Abandoned roadside restaurant

Just past the bridge, you will find a hermetically sealed and disused Raststätte and restaurant back along the old route of the A115.

No man's land

Besides traces of the motorway, the border between West and East Berlin has also left scars. For instance, the East German border guards left barricades here and there: rails welded together, presumably from the Friedhofsbahn.

The no man's land along the Berlin Wall is still perfectly recognisable in the forest decades later.

How To Get There?
Gain Access to all of the information!

Get access to all practical information to prepare your visit, for example addresses, GPS-coordinates and instructions how to legally visit this venue.
Discover this location on a detailed map.
Get instructions how to get there, together with extra info for walkers and bikers.
Discover more interesting places nearby.
Explore hundreds of other hidden landmarks on the interactive heritage map.
Download the Hidden Monuments 2024 travel guide with 10 hand-picked destinations off the beaten track across Europe.

Become a member only 49,90 euro / year

Already subscribed? Log In

Six blast furnaces you can visit today

In the early nineteenth century, the industrial revolution swept across continental Europe and one steelworks after another rose from the ground. Europe had hundreds of blast furnaces, but since the mid-twentieth century, Europe's steel industry has been slowly going downhill.

Abandoned highway in Berlin

Viaduct

Teltow Canal

Abandoned roadside restaurant

No man's land

Discover more

Industrial Heritage

Dark tourism