Aquarium

One of the oldest buildings in Charlottenburg and actually the reason for the whole city to be built.

Works from the Dresden art collaborative called "Die Brücke".

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.

It was the only border crossing between East and West Berlin that permitted foreigners passage. Residents of East and West Berlin were not allowed to use it. This contributed to Checkpoint Charlie's mythological status as a meeting place for spies and other shady individuals. Checkpoint Charlie gained its name from the phonetic alphabet; checkpoints "Alpha" and "Bravo" were at the autobahn checkpoints Helmstedt and Dreilinden respectively. Checkpoint Charlie's atmosphere was not improved at all on 27 Oct 1961 when the two Cold War superpowers chose to face each other down for a day. Soviet and American tanks stood approximately 200 m apart, making an already tense situation worse. Now the remains of the Berlin Wall have been moved to permit building, including construction of the American Business Center and other institutions.At the intersection of Zimmerstraße and Friedrichstraße (U-Bahn Kochstraße U6) is the famous "You Are Leaving the American Sector" sign. The actual guardhouse from Checkpoint Charlie is now housed at the Allied Museum on Clayallee. For a more interesting exhibit go to the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie. This is a private museum with kitschy memorabilia from the Wall and the devices GDR residents used to escape the East (including a tiny submarine!). There are also people who set up booths here offering to stamp your passport with souvenir stamps in exchange for a small fee. You are highly advised not to put these stamps in your passport, as these are not official stamps and could invalidate it. Instead, bring along an expired passport or a small booklet to put the stamps in.

This abandoned amusement park with its iconic large Ferris wheel opened in the German Democratic Republic in 1969. After its closing in 2002 the rotting theme park and its apocalyptic atmosphere became a target of international media coverage, amongst others by the New York Times. In 2016 it was announced that the venue will be restored and reopened as an art and culture park.

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 small but interesting collection of decorative arts from the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods

A man-made hill of about 120 m in the Grunewald, created after the Second World War from debris of the city. On top is the Field Station Berlin, a former US listening station. Inside the building complex you can see lots of graffiti art. The hill can be accessed without any restrictions and is free; however, the building complex is surrounded by fences and requires a ticket (tours are available as well).

The only surviving Berlin city gate and a potent symbol of the city. This is the point where Straße des 17. Juni becomes Unter den Linden. The gate was designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans in 1791 and was intended to resemble the Acropolis in Athens. The Brandenburg Gate now symbolizes reunification, after dividing East and West Berlin for decades. This is the site of Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev open this gate, Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall" speech.

The oldest museum of its kind in Germany which, despite great losses during the World War II, still possesses one of the world's primary collections of European applied art. There are two sections to the collection: one located at the Kulturforum in Tiergarten, the other at Köpenick Palace.

Huge technical museum, on a former railroad depot, featuring from ancient water and wind mills to computer pioneer Konrad Zuse's inventions, a collection of old to new vehicles of all types -bicycles, boats, trains, etc - and the interactive Spectrum science center with various hands-on experiments. There's an actual C-17 "Candy Bomber" airplane hanging on its façade. The railroad and aeronautical sections are hard to beat.

One of the most authentic and oldest villages (1247) in the outskirts of Berlin, it looks the same way it did some hundred years ago. Take S-Bahn 1 to Waidmannslust and then bus 222 to Alt-Lübars.

Take a stroll for a few kilometers along this canal which runs right through the heart of Kreuzberg. It's peaceful and mostly traffic-free, but full of life in summer. Some parts are lined with bars and restaurants with terraces. Sit on a bench or terrace and watch the world go by on a summer evening.

More than 30 million objects in the scientific collection and a fascinating exhibition in one of the most significant institutions of its kind in the world. Some parts still under construction.

Millions of visitors leaving East Berlin by train said tearful goodbyes to their friends and relatives from the East at this former border checkpoint. Hardly a year after the wall came down, the building was turned into a nightclub until it was forced to close in 2006. It re-opened as a museum in September 2011 and now houses a permanent exhibition that brings the absurd normality of everyday life in the divided city back to life.