Old photos · Germany
Old photos of Berlin
Its two busiest decades are the 1900s, the imperial capital at full stretch, and the 1960s, the divided city — with the ruins of 1945 and the years of clearing them in between.
Time Portal's archive holds about 30,000 photographs of Berlin, taken between 1840 and 2000, each pinned to the spot where the photographer stood. 48% of them date from 1955 or later and are free to browse at map.timeportal.app with no account; the older ones open with Pro. The oldest, dated 1840 in the archive, shows the houses at Hausvogteiplatz 7–9, in a worn and spotted print.
- Photographs
- 30,000
- Oldest
- 1840
- Busiest decade
- 1960s
- Free, 1955 on
- 48%
How many photographs, decade by decade
The busiest decades for Berlin are the 1960s and the 1900s — 6,498 and 3,724 photographs. 2,925 were taken before 1900. Everything from 1955 onward is free to open on the map; the older photographs are part of Pro.
| Decade | Relative size | Photographs |
|---|---|---|
| before 1860 | 35 | |
| 1860s | 134 | |
| 1870s | 210 | |
| 1880s | 1,019 | |
| 1890s | 1,527 | |
| 1900s | 3,724 | |
| 1910s | 1,526 | |
| 1920s | 1,204 | |
| 1930s | 2,241 | |
| 1940s | 2,041 | |
| 1950s | 3,701 | |
| 1960s | 6,498 | |
| 1970s | 2,650 | |
| 1980s | 2,402 | |
| 1990s | 760 |
Where the photographs were taken
Counted in a small square around each place — about 250 metres each way — so a number is every photograph taken there, of the place itself or of the street beside it. Each place opens the map on that spot.
| Place | Photos | Oldest |
|---|---|---|
| The Brandenburg Gate | 858 | 1850 |
| Unter den Linden | 1,011 | 1872–1877 |
| The Reichstag | 523 | 1884 |
| Alexanderplatz | 856 | 1883 |
| Potsdamer Platz | 688 | 1872 |
| Checkpoint Charlie | 287 | 1876 |
What changed
Berlin's photographs span an imperial capital, its near-total destruction in 1945 and forty years of division. The Wall went up on 13 August 1961 and ran through the heart of the old city — past the Brandenburg Gate, and across Potsdamer Platz, which went from one of the busiest squares in Europe to an empty strip of sand. It opened on 9 November 1989.
Alexanderplatz shows the other side of that story: bombed, cleared, and rebuilt in the 1960s as the showpiece centre of East Berlin, with the television tower finished in 1969.
Questions about old photos of Berlin
Where can I see old photos of Berlin on a map?
On Time Portal: about 30,000 photographs of Berlin, each pinned where it was taken, most with the direction the camera faced. The map is free in any browser at map.timeportal.app — photographs from 1955 on need no account — and there is an app for iPhone and iPad.
What is the oldest photograph of Berlin in the archive?
The oldest precisely dated photograph, from 1840, shows the houses at Hausvogteiplatz 7–9, in a worn and spotted print. 2,925 of the Berlin photographs were taken before 1900.
Which years of Berlin are best covered?
The 1960s, with 6,498 photographs, and the 1900s, with 3,724. 48% of the Berlin photographs date from 1955 or later.
Open Berlin on the map
One place in Berlin, across a century: The Brandenburg Gate: Berlin Then & Now. Other cities: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kyiv, New York, Paris, Prague, Tbilisi, Odesa, Riga, Rome, London. Or search any address on the map, or in the app.
The counts on this page are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 — credit Time Portal and link here. The photographs are not ours to license: they belong to their photographers and the archives that keep them.