This article examines the portrayal of the GDR and the societal processes of upheaval during autumn 1989 in children’s literature. In the two selected texts, Klaus Möckel’s Bennys Bluff oder ein unheimlicher Fall  (1991) and Holly Jane Rahlens' Mauerblümchen (2009), Berlin children and young adults with eastern and western backgrounds explore the newly unified city. The storylines in both books unfold very shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the social and societal differences between East and West are still present and apparent.

Analysis of the texts reveals the presence of East and West in the cityscape and how the developing political changes influence the presentation of urban life, the description of childhood, the places that the protagonists explore and the characters’ interaction with other Berlin people. Furthermore, the article emphasises the importance of reflecting both on the presentation of East and West biographies, and on places of historical significance, such as like the border-crossing point, Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse.