To be precise: across from our street there are no remnants of the Berlin Wall. There are parts left here and there, kept up for tourists to look at, the nearest being the East Side Gallery across the Spree in Friedrichshain. But along the former Iron Curtain line between Kreuzberg and Treptow? Just a watchtower. And the mandatory double line in the ground, redrawing the course of the Wall through the city. From our flat in Kreuzberg we look right across the canal into Treptow. It´s a wonderful view into a green wall of trees and bushes growing along the banks of the canal. People ride their bikes, go jogging and push their strollers, enjoying this idyllic part of our neighbourhood which is not always free of conflict. There is always something going on, it´s a public forum for musicians, poets, bbq´ers and the perfect spot to sleep off your hangover. Beyond the canal there is more green, more trees and bushes, the next dwellings some 150 meters away. 25 years ago the view was against a grey wall - the wall. Yes, the canal was on the West Berlin side, so it would have been somewhat green, and yes, it would have been quiet around here, being the last house in the street staring at East Berlin. But no bikes, no kids, no joggers and no strollers. Perhaps a little boring apart from trying to get the occasional East German border guards to wave back.

I often walk along the course of the wall on the Treptow side, trying to imagine how it might have looked. Everything is nice to look at now, it´s lively and there is a creative commune living in wagons by the canal. We know what the wall looked like from the west, but what was here on the eastern side, what was the infamous death strip in this area like? Were all the trees felled in order to have a better view from the watchtowers? All this is really difficult to imagine now, the cold war facts from 25 years ago seem so abstract, so far away.

A great spot looking at the three city districts which were strongly affected by the mad zigzag course of the Berlin Wall. Neukölln to the left, Kreuzberg straight ahead and Treptow to the right. Photographed from a canal-bridge that belonged to West Berlins Neukölln district.

The double line running across a sidewalk in Treptow. The canal is to the left. Between the line (the Berlin Wall) and the house in the background would have been the mined death strip. Was the house inhabited? Maybe by loyal party members?

A reflection of the former railroad bridge connecting Kreuzberg and Treptow, now a pedestrian walkway. A wagon community lives next to the bridge on the Treptow side.

A watchtower in the middle of a park what would have been a treeless wasteland in times of the wall. The canal and Kreuzberg beyond the line of trees in the background.

The course of the wall facing north. Kreuzberg (West Berlin) to the left, Treptow (East Berlin) to the right.

Same spot facing south. No wall left, just a walkway.

See more pics of Berlin-Treptow.