Maps of Berlin Available from Ball State University Libraries

Maps in the News:  Berlin

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) on the second floor of Bracken Library houses a collection of over 140,000 maps, atlases, gazetteers, and other cartographic resources.  The GRMC includes historic and modern maps of cities and countries around the world, including Berlin, Germany.

Handy laminated tourist maps of the city are available for circulation from the GRMC, including the National Geographic Destination Map of Berlin (top map above, click to enlarge). The map shows the location of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche) next to the site of the truck attack at a Christmas market on December 19.

The GRMC also includes historic maps of Berlin from World War II.  The U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) published city plans of Berlin in 1943.  The middle map above is a map of the district boundaries of Berlin published by the OSS in 1943 based on a provisional map from 1938.  The GRMC also has maps from the War Office in Great Britain dating back to World War II.

The Collection also includes maps that depict the city separately as East Berlin and West Berlin.  The bottom map is East Berlin published in 1972.  The pale red outline identifies the location of the Berlin Wall.  On the legend of the map, the wall is labelled only “State boundary.”  The legend of the map is published in German, Russian, French, and English.  The popular Brandenburg Gate is labelled as “Brandenburger Tor” just along the Berlin Wall.

Maps from the GRMC circulate for two weeks or longer.  For more information about the unique cartographic resources at Ball State University Libraries, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.