Every Tuesday one of the Circus owners – Jim – takes guests on a very special free tour to somewhere in the city that, well, he basically finds interesting. As he has a love for off-beat spots they are often in weird and wonderful corners of Berlin, that you basically would probably not visit during a “normal” exploration of the city.
The tour for tomorrow is to the Allied Museum, located in the former headquarters of the American military in (West) Berlin, and the museum itself can be found in old Army cinema. The US presence in Berlin that began with the division of the city into zones of occupation following the Second World War came to an end in 1994, four years after the reunification of Germany.
On the tour guests will get to see the original guard cabin from the Checkpoint Charlie border crossing in the Berlin Wall, as well as a GDR guard tower and one of the world famous “Candy Bombers”. These were planes that were used during the Airlift of 1948/9, when Stalin closed all land-based supply routes to the western zones of the city in an attempt to squeeze the Allies and, ultimately, bring all of Berlin under Soviet control.
Thanks to an extraordinary effort, West Berlin was supplied by air – the sheer number of planes and flights needed was astounding – and the siege failed. As the planes came into land, usually at the old Tempelhof airport, the pilots dropped sweets on little parachutes to the children waiting below, and it was from this action that they got their nickname. It was an incredible propaganda coup at a time of heightened Cold War tensions, and helped cement support for the Allies and the West within those zones of the city.
Jimbo’s Tour is free – although you will need public transport tickets to and from the museum – and is open to all guests of The Circus. Places are limited so people need to sign up at reception. And if you are not in Berlin but you are coming to Berlin soon, keep a look out for the Tuesday tours. On the hostel website you can find a list of the upcoming tours. See you soon!
Jim is not only one of the owners of the Circus, but he is also our resident expert on the hidden corners of the city. It is Jim’s firmly held belief that some of the most interesting places in Berlin are “off the beaten track”, not least in his home neighbourhood of Pankow. 
Majaokowski Ring
Schloss Niederschönhausen
Soviet War Memorial Schönholzer Heide
Peter Sutcliffe has been a good friend of The Circus for many years – indeed we think of Peter as part of the family – and he has recently written a book all about a specific aspect of this city that we love: the Beer. Now, as you can imagine, discovering that someone has basically written a book just for me, filled with a selection of pubs and brews throughout the many corners of the city, is just too good to be true. Planning my Saturday afternoon trips around Berlin has just got a lot easier!
At the end of the Second World War, which brought countless bombing raids to the city and the destruction that accompanied the Red Army’s final assault, it is estimated that there were 12 million cubic metres of rubble in Berlin. Some of this rubble was used to create the Teufelsberg (”Devil’s Mountain”) which is to the west of the city centre and is actually higher than any of the “natural” points in the city.
Once communications were intercepted from the top of the Devil’s Mountain, they were sent down the hill to secret underground bunkers at Tempelhof Airport for analysis. The evesdropping continued up until the fall of the Berlin Wall (and who knows what kind of things they heard) but with the end of Communism the equipment was moved out and the building abandoned.
Up on Landsberger Allee is a little of Russia still life and kicking in the form of a Russian supermarket. Here you buy all the products that your average Russian misses from the homeland. Outside the supermarket is an on going BBQ selling the most delicious Schaschlik you will find this side of the River Don. For those of you not acquainted with Schashlik, it is pork on a stick with a vinegar dressing. And for those of you that think that out door grilling is only for the summer think again, it is all year and there is a little tent to keep the elements away.
Lübars is the oldest village in Berlin and was first mentioned in 1247. Pre 1989 it was a place of real affection for the West Berliners who were completely surrounded by the Berlin wall as it was the only place that felt like a village. Their next opportunity would be several hundred kilometers away in West Germany.
On the steps of Rathaus Schöneberg which was used as the City Hall for the West Berlin government is where the US President John F. Kennedy held his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in June 1963. In this defiant stance aimed at the Soviet Union who had 22 months earlier erected a wall around West Berlin he said “Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was 
The Weißensee cemetery is the second largest Jewish cemetery in Europe and contains approximately 115.000 graves. It miraculously survived the Second War World and the Nazis relatively unscathed, and was only actually partially damaged during an allied air raid. During the next 44 years the place was pretty much neglected as basically the entire Jewish communiity had been murdered or exiled, and also for the fact that it was encouraged in the communist East Germany that only Marx and Engels would be worshipped.
