The Berlin Wall has divided the German capital into two parts for 28 years, before finally falling 30 years ago.
Although there are hardly any remnants of the wall in many parts of the capital, a strip of stones remains in some streets to determine its former course, although it is easy to pass by unnoticed even by its existence.
Memories of the Berlin Wall still live in places of historical value such as the checkpoint "Charlie" and "Bernauer Straße", and these places are among the main attractions for tourists in the German capital. There are now some technological means such as "virtual reality" and "augmented reality", which open the door wide for those wishing to indulge in this historical era and back in time.
The German programmer Peter Kolski created an application called "Maor" as part of the official program to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the wall, which falls this week, in the German capital.
Downloaded on smartphones, this app uses augmented reality technologies to inform the user more deeply about historical events. If the user approaches the previous path of the wall, the application displays on the mobile screen the original shape of the wall in that area before it is removed.
Through this application, it is possible to explore a distance of more than 160 kilometers from the wall, as it tells the history of the wall by two fictional characters, "Andreas" from East Berlin and "Johanna" in the west, where they describe in their view how they saw the construction of the wall and its ongoing expansion.
One of the scenes that can be followed up on the implementation of the tanks of the Soviet Union standing in front of the tanks of Western allies on both sides of the wall in one of the hostilities between the two sides.
The app is available on Apple´s iPhone and iPad devices, and the novel´s stories culminate in the fall of 1989. The app allows visitors to experience the fall of the wall, just as if history had taken them back in five regions. Different brands in the German capital include the Brandenburg Gate, Kurfürstendamm Boulevard and Alexanderplatz.
Every tourist who uses this application while exploring the city must make sure that his phone is well charged, because the computing operations carried out by the phone using augmented reality technologies require a lot of energy.
The Maor app can be used at home to review the steps of building the wall, for example, where you can follow the steps of building the wall through the streets of Berlin in its various stages, and see the points where the guard and watchtowers were standing. The app contains many images and texts obtained from the Berlin Wall Foundation that give further information on this important stage of Berlin´s history.
Visitors to Berlin can get back in time at the Charlie checkpoint with virtual reality technology, where Time Ride GMPH offers a virtual journey through divided Berlin. After watching a short video that gives an introduction to this era when the “imperialist firewall” still divides the city into two parts, the tourist can choose to listen to the words of a “contemporary witness” from three different characters accompanying him during the tour stages and talk about their own different experiences about this. age.
The virtual flight starts directly at the Charlie checkpoint. By wearing virtual reality glasses, the tourist can take a virtual "tourist bus" on the Friedrichstrasse road next to the old border checkpoint and then the observation places through the market "Gendarmen Market" which is still in the form of rubble after its destruction during World War II, In addition to Leipzig Street, which is characterized by its ancient buildings next to the wall, the trip ends in the square "Palast der Riblick".
When Time Ride opened about two months ago, the founder and chairman of the company, Jonas Rote, explained that its purpose was to convey historical knowledge emotionally. Thanks to technologies such as virtual reality, Roota can come close to his childhood dream of time travel.
The company is headquartered on Tsimmer Straße near the Checkpoint Charlie, but Time Ride also offers virtual tours in other historic cities such as Cologne and Dresden, and recently launched a tour in Munich, where it is now possible to take a trip through seven Thousands of years of Bavaria´s history in Germany.
