Vintage passport stamps offered in Berlin

These days, a resident of an EU member state may have to go to considerable lengths to get his/her passport stamped, since all internal border passport and custom inspections within the Schengen Zone have been removed. Yet those interested in reliving the days when the Berlin Wall still stood and when travellers had to produce a passport to simply go from one part of Berlin to another may just be in luck. Right outside the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin, people dressed up as former East German border guards will inspect your passport for you, precisely where the original border crossing once stood and will then go ahead and place an authentic, vintage stamp in your passport, all for a modest fee.

The passport stamping occurs in front of the recreated Checkpoint Charlie booth, directly next to the Berlin Wall Museum. While it is possible to take a picture with people dressed up as former East German, Soviet and American soldiers, authentic visas and passport stamps are also offered. The price of one stamp in a visitor’s passport is €2, but it is also possible to receive 7 stamps for €5. The visitor may then choose from a set of vintage stamps, including ones used at various border crossing in the German Democratic Republic (DDR), the former American and British sectors of Berlin following the city’s division into occupation zones, as well as stamps used by the Federal Republic of Germany. All that visitors require is a passport, with some free pages for these stamps. It is also possible to request a reproduction of an original DDR visa and the “border guards” can be asked to stamp this as well.

The Berlin Wall was constructed in August 1961 by the DDR government, in order to keep East Germans from fleeing into the West in the hope of a better life. The Wall was only fully opened in November-December 1989, following the effective resignation of the entire DDR leadership.