The Allied Museum in Berlin tells the story of the Western Allies in the Cold War. Exhibits trace daily life, diplomacy, and military strategy from 1945 to 1994, when Allied forces left the city. The collection focuses on how West Berlin functioned under the protection of the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, and how their presence shaped the city’s politics, culture, and public spaces.
One of the museum’s highlights is the Berlin Airlift, presented through original equipment, photos, and personal accounts. Visitors see how supplies were flown into the city during the Soviet blockade, keeping two million people fed and warm. A large transport aircraft and an original guardhouse illustrate the scale of the operation and the everyday routine of Allied personnel stationed in Berlin.
The museum explores checkpoints, intelligence work, and propaganda on the Western side. Uniforms, maps, radios, and declassified documents show how information moved across a divided city. Exhibits on Checkpoint Charlie and the role of Allied military police explain how traffic, security, and diplomacy played out at the border between two systems.
Beyond strategy and security, the displays cover daily life on Allied bases: cinemas screening new releases, clubs with live music, and schools for the families of service members. Posters, record players, and canteen menus paint a picture of the social world that grew up around the garrisons, showing how Western culture spread through concerts, film nights, and sports teams.
The final section follows the changes after 1989. Photographs, newsreels, and farewell ceremonies mark the drawdown of troops and the handover of sites to the city. The museum traces how former airfields, barracks, and headquarters found new roles in a reunited Berlin, while plaques and memorials keep the Allied story visible in today’s streetscape.
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_Museum
Official residence of the (largely ceremonial) President of Germany since 1994. Only Roman Herzog (president 1994-1999) actually lived here, his successors have preferred a quiet apartment on the outskirts of Berlin, but this is where the president will usually host guests and do public events. Guided tours are possible, but plan to book up to nine months ahead and be prepared for having to reschedule if the president decides to hold an event on short notice which preempts tours.
Exhibition of digital interactive entertainment culture. You can actually play almost all of the exhibits making it a more "hands on" museum than most.
The zoo in the former East Berlin is more spacious than its West Berlin counterpart, the historic Berlin Zoo and has been open for some 50 years. The Tierpark has nearly as many animals, but fewer reptiles and aquatic animals. It appears rather like a park with animals than a classic zoo, in fact it is one of the biggest zoos in Europe. There is an old castle from the late 17th century in the northeast of the Tierpark (Schloss Friedrichsfelde).
A remarkable medium-sized classical castle by the famous K.F. Schinkel built 1820 to 1824, also called "Humboldtschlösschen", because Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt (and their family) lived here once. Still privately owned.
Small park in the heart of West Berlin. Great place to chill on a sunny day. There are many great cafés and restaurants nearby. Linger over a coffee here and watch people passing by.
Oderberger Straße is known for its beautiful and generous Gründerzeit architecture, as well as its cafés and restaurants. Since before Germany's reunification the street has been the desired place for alternative folks and avant-gardists, but the area has seen continual gentrification since the early 2000s.
The synagogue in the backyard of an apartment house is one of the biggest in Germany.
Want to feel like one of the angels in Wim Wenders' classic film Der Himmel über Berlin (a.k.a. Wings of Desire)? Climb to the top of Gold-Else, as the statue of Victory on the top of the Victory Column is known. Just don't jump off if you're not actually an angel. Unfortunately there is no elevator, so be prepared for 285 steps to the platform at 50.7 m.Else was built to commemorate Prussian military prowess in the wars against Denmark (1864), Austria (1866) and France (1870-71), and moved to her present location by the Nazis. Five roads run into a traffic circle called Grosser Stern, in the centre of which is the Siegessäule. Else is visible from much of the city district known as Tiergarten. At the base of the statue are reliefs of war scenes representing the conflicts which this monument memorializes. The Allies forced Germany to take those panels down in 1945, but they were remounted in 1984 and 1987. It also served as a backdrop for a speech by then senator Obama in 2008, after his request to speak in front of Brandenburger Tor caused a political debate in Germany.
An eerie memorial to victims of the Nazi regime built on the place of a former execution room, where nearly 2900 people where put to death between 1933 and 1945.
Includes the Panoramapunkt, the viewing terrace located 101 metres above ground, accessible by Europe's fastest elevator.