Berlin Attractions

Neighborhoods

Grunewald
Visitors are often surprised by the extent of Grunewald's 19 square miles of secluded verdant forest, lovely parks, and lakes. The area serves as a green oasis for the urban dwellers of Berlin.

Museumsinsel (Museum Island)
This island in the Spree River hosts a complex of museums housed in neoclassical buildings. Its most famous museum, the Pergamon, contains magnificent reconstructions of ancient temples.

Potsdamer Platz
Before World War II, this was the thriving heart of Berlin. Blasted into rubble by wartime bombings, it was bulldozed almost out of existence when the Wall went up on its western edge. After reunification, it was transformed into a glittering, ultra-modern square dominated by such corporate giants as Daimler-Chrysler. It stands as a symbol of the corporate culture of a reunited Germany.

Charlottenburg
This is the wealthiest and most densely commercialized district of western Berlin. Its Centerpiece is Charlottenburg Palace.

Mitte (Center)
Closed to western investors for nearly 50 years, this district is at the heart of Berlin. It was originally conceived as the architectural Centerpiece of the Prussian Kaisers. Its fortunes declined dramatically as the Communist regime filled it with starkly angular monuments and buildings. Although some of Mitte's grand structures were destroyed by wartime bombings, unification has resulted in restoration of its remaining artistic and architectural treasures. The district's most famous boulevard is Unter den Linden (Under the Lime Trees). Famous squares within the district include Pariser Platz (adjacent to the Brandenburg Gate), Potsdamer Platz, and Alexanderplatz.

Tiergarten
Tiergarten ( Animal Garden) refers both to a massive urban park and, to the park's north boundary: a residential district of the same name. The park was originally intended as a backdrop to the grand avenues laid out for the German Kaisers by a leading landscape architect of the day, Peter Josef Lenné. The neighborhood contains the Brandenburg Gate, the German Reichstag (Parliament), the Berlin Zoo, and some of the city's grandest museums.

Attractions

Eastern Berlin
The broad, stately boulevard of Unter den Linden starts at the Brandenburg Gate.

Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin
Unter den Linden 13-15
daily 11am-8pm
Free admission on Mondays
take U-Bahn Französische St.
located just to the east of Friedrichstrasse, the Guggenheim contains an extensive collection of contemporary art and hosts three to four major exhibitions per year. Lining the wide promenade beyond are a host of historic buildings restored from the rubble of the war
Neoclassical Humboldt University
Alte Bibliothek,
Deutsche Staatsoper
St Hedwig's Cathedral, built for the city's Catholics in 1747.

Bebelplatz
U-Bahn Französische St.
Faces the Cathedral and is the site of the infamous Nazi bookburning of May 10, 1933; an underground room visible through a glass panel set in the center of the square.

Neue Wache, a former royal guardhouse resembling a Roman temple and now a memorial to victims of war and tyranny. Next door, is one of Berlin's finest Baroque buildings, the old Prussian Arsenal, which is home to the Museum of German History.

Museum of German History
10am-6pm; closed Wed
free
U-Bahn Friedrichstr.
currently closed for renovations until the end of 2001; until then, temporary exhibitions on historical themes are being held in the Kronprinzenpalais across the road.

Französische Kirche on the northern side of the square. Built as a church for Berlin's influential Huguenot community at the beginning of the eighteenth century, it also now houses the Hugenottenmuseum.

Hugenottenmuseum
Tues-Sat noon-5pm, Sun 11am-5pm
Contains exhibits documenting the way of life of the Huggenotts.

Deutsche Kirche
Tues-Sun 10am-6pm
free admission
The church was built in the 18^th century for the city's Reformed community. It houses an historical exhibition, "Questions of German History"

Friedrichstrasse
an upscale shopping district with an eclectic mix of modernist architecture, lies a block west of the Deutsche Kirche.

Schlossplatz
U-Bahn Alexanderplatz
At the eastern end of Unter den Linden lies the former site of the imperial palace and the current home of the abandoned Palast der Republik, the former GDR parliament building. It stands at the midpoint of a city-centre island whose northwestern part, Museumsinsel, is the location of some of the best of Berlin's museums. Reopening following an extensive reconstruction program:
The Alte Nationalgalerie (U-Bahn Friedrichstr.), houses the city's collection of nineteenth-century European art has been extensively renovated and restored.

Altes Museum
Tues-Sun 10am-6pm
free first Sun on month
U-Bahn Friedrichstr.)
Perhaps Schinkel's most impressive surviving work is displayed in the Alte Nationalgalerie's collection. In addition, it devotes a floor to the city's excellent collection of Greek and Roman antiquities.

Alexanderplatz,
The commercial hub of eastern Berlin.

Marienkirche,
The church is open Mon. to Thurs. 10am to noon and 1 to 4pm, Fri. to Sun. noon to 4pm. Free tours are offered Mon. to Thurs. at 1pm and Sun. at 11:45am.
This is Berlin's second opldest parish church, dating from the 15^th century. Inside is the 1475 wall painting Der Totentanz (The Dance of Death), discovered in 1860 beneath a layer of whitewash in the church's entrance hall. Also worth seeing is the marble baroque pulpit carved by Andreas Schlüter (1703). The cross on the top of the church annoyed the Communist rulers of the former East Germany--its golden form was always reflected in the windows of the Fernsehturm.

Fernsehturm or TV tower
March-Oct daily 9am-1am;Nov--Feb 10am-midnight;
U-Bahn Alexanderplatz
The observation platform offers unbeatable views of the whole city on rare clear days.

Nikolaiviertel
Take U-Bahn Klosterstr.
A modern development that attempts to recreate the winding streets and small houses of this part of old prewar Berlin, which was razed overnight on June 16, 1944.

Nikolaikirche
Tues-Sun 10am-6pm;
Free
Take U-Bahn Klosterstr.,
a rebuilt thirteenth-century structure that is Berlin's oldest parish church. Not far away on Mühlendamm is the rebuilt Rococo

Ephraim-Palais
Tues-Sun. 10-6.
U-Bahn Klosterstr.
housing a collection of Berlin art from the reign of Frederick the Great to 1945.

Western Berlin
Altes Museum
Bodestrasse 1-3, Museumsinsel
030/20-99-55-55
Tues-Sun 10am-6pm U-Bahn/S-Bahn: Friedrichstrasse. Bus 100 to Lustgarten Admission charged.
Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the city's greatest architect, designed this structure, which resembles a Greek Corinthian temple, in 1822. On its main floor is the
This is a large collection of world-famous antique decorative art. Some of the finest Greek vases of the black-and-red-figures style, from the 6^th to the 4^th century B.C., are here. The best-known vase is a large Athenian amphora (wine jar) found in Vulci, Etruria.