What is to the left of the Stadtgrenze terminus?

Is that a border crossing for the Berlin Wall on the left when you are close to the Stadgrenze terminus?

Yes. the one with the blue and red shelters between Reimerweg and Stadtgrenze is the western checkpoint. The eastern checkpoint on the other hand is located just behind the border, on GDR territory.

Spandau is one of the westernmost regions of the former 'West Berlin', so it is over on the left side of the yellow region of this map;



The checkpoint at Stadtgranze was therefore from West Berlin into the main East Germany (GDR). As you can see on this map, the Berlin Wall prevented access for East German's into West Berlin, not just from East Berlin, but from all parts of East Germany (which surrounded Berlin).

My Father worked in Spandau in the 80s. In fact he used to get off the U-Bahn at the 'Spandau West' station (shown in the sim at Galenstrasse Terminus) every day! There were quite a few Brits in West Berlin (and especially Spandau) at that time as the Spandau region was in the British administered sector.

Thanks for the info!

I always thought that the Berlin Wall surrounded East Berlin...

No, it was built by East Germany, and it's entire purpose was to keep East German's from getting into West Berlin as refugees. Thus it surrounded West Berlin to prevent both East Berliners (to the East) and East German citizens to the West of West Berlin (in East Germany 'proper') from getting into West Berlin.

Although West Berlin was completely surrounded by East Germany, there were 3 air corridors, and a number of transit routes that allowed movement in and out West Berlin.

It was a complex situation but basically, remember that although Berlin contained a 'slice of the West' (ie... West Berlin), the whole city was physically located within the geography of East Germany.

This map is good for seeing where the wall was;-



.... the section marked as 'Russian Sector' was East Berlin. But there was no wall around this, only around the other sectors, to prevent the DDR citizens from fleeing the Communist DDR, for the freedome of the west.

If you see, the checkpoint marked (10) on that map (Staaken), that is the checkpoint just next to 'Stadtgrenze' in OMSI!

Cheers,

OK.. So what about the U- and the S-Bahn? I know that many of the routes led from the West to the East Berlin and vice versa.

Another example... 54E. And so on.

Well, the train lines that crossed the wall had to terminate at the stations nearest the border, once the wall went up.

There were however, "ghost stations", these were stations that feel within 'the other side' but where the route did begin and end in the same side. So trains were not allowed to stop in them. Some were bricked up!

In later years, some of the stations on opposing sides of the wall had checkpoints put into them, so that transit passengers could exit there, as long as they had the correct papers.

Read more on it here; (especially the U and S Bahn and 'Ghost Stations');

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Berlin



Cheers,