Majakowskiring

In GDR days, at least until the 1960s, this oval ring road, southwest of Schloss Niederschönhausen, was home to a who’s who of the apparatchik elite. Walter Ulbricht (Wall builder and SED secretary from 1950 to 1971) lived at No 28 next to the first GDR president Wilhelm Pieck. Erich Honecker later moved into No 58. Their neighbours were state-approved scientists and creative folk. Nicknamed the Städtchen (little town), the enclave was completely sealed off from the public, lest anyone saw the lavish 1920s villas (seized from industrialists after WWII) and overall luxury in which their rulers wallowed while denying almost everyone else basic amenities such as a car or telephone. Have a stroll around and imagine the ghosts of the past.