The building of one of Berlin’s oldest breweries stands along the Spree as a striking piece of industrial history. Its red brick façades, ornate gables, and tall windows show the craftsmanship of a different era. Protected as a heritage site, the former brewery tells the story of a city that grew with industry, innovation, and beer.
The complex blends functional design with decorative detail. Brick patterns frame doors and arches, metal fittings hint at machinery once inside, and a chimney rises like a landmark. Even without production noise, the site keeps an atmosphere of work and skill. Light catches the brickwork at different times of day, revealing textures and lines that photographers love.
As one of Berlin’s early breweries, the place once powered daily life with barrels headed to taverns and street corners. Cellars stored cooling ice, courtyards bustled with carts, and fermentation rooms filled the air with a warm, malty scent. The preserved structures make it easy to imagine the rhythm of shifts, the clink of bottles, and the hum of engines.
Set beside the river, the site connects industrial architecture with waterside calm. Trees line the banks, and boats move slowly along the Spree. The contrast between solid brick walls and moving water adds a quiet drama, turning the old brewery into a scene that feels both urban and timeless.
Like many historic industrial sites in Berlin, the brewery has shifted roles over time. While production has stopped, the buildings remain as a cultural marker, protected for their design and history. This transformation allows the past to stay visible in a modern city, where new uses can fit into old walls without losing their character.
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.
Again one of the world's most comprehensive ones. At the museum district of Dahlem.
Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels made Bebelplatz (then called Opernplatz) infamous on 10 May 1933, when he used the square across from Humboldt University to burn 20,000 books by "immoral" authors of whom the Nazis did not approve. Their list included Thomas and Heinrich Mann, Arnold Zweig, Kurt Tucholsky and Sigmund Freud. Today a monument is the reminder, though it blames Nazi students for the episode. When entering the square it's easy to miss the monument. It is in that part of Bebelplatz bounded on one side by the Opera House and on the other side by Humboldt University. Look dead centre: the monument is underground. A piece of plexiglass allows the viewer to look underground into a large, white room, filled with entirely empty, blank white bookcases. The room is large enough to hold the 20,000 books that were burnt. The absence of books reminds the viewer just what was lost here: ideas. But the event did reveal things to come, as ethnically Jewish author and philosopher Heinrich Heine, whose books were burned, let one of his characters say in an 1821 play: "This was only the foreplay. Where they burn books, they will also burn people." He was correct.
Nice church near Unter den Linden/Museum Island, finished in 1830 by Schinkel in English Neogothic style. Nice exhibition inside (neoclassical statues and an exhibition about Schinkel's life and work upstairs).
With an impressive, circus-tent-like roof over its courtyard and remains of the pre-war Hotel Esplanade incorporated into the modern structure.
Not far away from Schloss Tegel (at the "große Malche") you can take a look at the oldest tree in Berlin, an oak which has been growing there since about 1192 (so it's actually older than Berlin itself). The name ("fat Mary") allegedly stems from the brother Humboldt who named the tree after their overweight cook.
Also known as "Picasso und seine Zeit", this not so large, but precious museum hosts a very good collection of paintings and sculptures signed by Picasso, Klee, Matisse, Giacometti, and others from the first decades of the 20th century.
Closed for renovations; the temporary Bauhaus-Archiv is at Knesebeckstraße 1-2 in Charlottenburg. Building designed by Walter Gropius. Inside a museum, library, cafe and shop.
The old town of Köpenick is surrounded by water. Especially noteworthy are the Köpenick Palace which houses a museum of applied art and the Neogothic town hall.
Built by Hitler for the 1936 Olympic Games, this is one of the better examples of Nazi neoclassical architecture (laying claim to the legacy of Rome, fasces and all) and is still used for sporting events. At those Olympics, African-American athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals, a party-spoiler for Aryan superiority. It's the home of soccer team Hertha BSC - they were relegated in 2023 and now play in 2. Bundesliga the second tier. In 2024 this stadium hosted games in the UEFA Euro Finals, including the final itself. For a glimpse of the Olympiastadion in its original state, seek out Leni Riefenstahl's movie Olympia - clips are shown in the Kinemathek and elsewhere.
It was a museum of applied arts and a listed historical monument since 1966, and it is now a well-known Berlin exhibition hall.
A museum dedicated to everyday life in communist East Germany. The museum has very relaxed rules and you are allowed to touch and examine almost every object, which adds greatly to the experience.
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.
Includes the Panoramapunkt, the viewing terrace located 101 metres above ground, accessible by Europe's fastest elevator.
This heritage-protected public bathing beach which opened in 1907 is one of the largest inland lidos in Europe and has a 1275-m-long sand beach, a capacity for up to 30,000 guests and a popular nudist area.