East Side Gallery

Places with markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays are popular with locals at Winterfeldplatz. Buy a coffee and browse amongst the stalls; this is a place to unearth hidden gems. Breakfast is served usually until 14:00-15:00.

The building of one of Berlin’s oldest breweries is a ravishingly beautiful and heritage-protected industrial monument.

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.

150 m high lattice tower with open-air observation deck 124 m above ground.

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).

Designed by Hans Scharoun.

The octagonal square right east of Potsdamer Platz was recreated to resemble its pre-war layout, but the buildings are modern rather than historic replicas and much taller than their counterparts from before the war. There is a diverse mix of uses among the buildings, which include the Embassy of Canada.

A domed church at Bebelplatz/Unter den Linden, the oldest (mid-18th century) and one of the biggest Catholic churches in Berlin. Interior was redesigned in a modern style in the 1950s, but there are still many treasure chambers in the basement.

Arguably the most beautiful bridge in Berlin and the only connection between Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg. As signage on the bridge indicates, it was built twice - once in the 1890s and once in the 1990s. Before reunification the border ran where the bridge now is.

The Gemäldegalerie contains an astounding array of paintings, including works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, Goya, Velasquez and Watteau. The collection contains works from the old Bodemuseum on Museumsinsel in the East, now closed, and the former Gemäldegalerie in Dahlem. Its strong points are German paintings of the 13-16th centuries, Netherlandish painting of the 15th and 16th centuries, Flemish paintings of the 17th century, and miniature paintings of the 16th-19th centuries. In the newer section of the museum, designed by architects Heinz Hilmer and Christoph Sattler, there is enough space to display 1,150 masterpieces in the main gallery and 350 in the studio gallery - of the almost 2,900 pieces in the European painting collections. Established in 1830, the newly built gallery from 1998 has about 7,000 sq m of exhibition space (a complete tour of the 72 rooms covers almost 2 km).

There are three huge collections housed within this grand building: the Collection of Classical Antiquities, the Museum of Near Eastern Antiquities and the Museum of Islamic Art. The Pergamon Museum was the last museum built on Museumsinsel (Museum Island) and was intended to house the great acquisitions brought to Germany by archaeologists of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The museum's best-known attraction is the Pergamonsaal. The Pergamon Altar (165 BC), from the eponymous Asia Minor city-state, is three stories high and served as the entrance gate to an entire complex. It is astounding both because of its size and extremely precise detail, especially in a frieze which shows the gods battling giants. The entire room is the same colour as the building's stone, making the details on the frieze section stand out even more. Facing the stairs, on the left hand side of the room there is a small-scale model of the altar which allows the viewer to see where the frieze segments would have been mounted. A 1:300 scale model of Pergamon city is on the right side of the room. The monumental market door of Milet has just been restored.Every first Sunday of the month, many museums in Berlin are free of charge. Sometimes a reservation is necessary in advance. For more information, see Museums Sonntag Booking.Since 2018 there is also a huge 360° panorama of Pergamon in another museum building, which is included in the Pergamon-only ticket.

1938

This museum explains how this house was used for a meeting of senior Nazis to ensure that they all knew that the SS would industrialize the use of mass-murder in disposing of Jews and "undesirables" and to debate a little the logistics of the Holocaust, for which Hitler had already given the orders.

The garden is part of the Free University of Berlin.

at the Rüdesheimer Platz

Heritage listed Art Nouveau railway station and charming surrounding city square.

A vast Holocaust memorial designed by the American architect Peter Eisenman. Opened in the spring of 2005, this gigantic abstract artwork covering an entire block near the Brandenburg Gate, including an underground information centre with extensive details on the Holocaust and the people who died during it. The blocks start out at ground level on the outer edges of the memorial, and then grow taller towards the middle, where the ground also slopes downwards. Entry to the information centre is free although priority is given to prebooked groups so there may be a short queue.

Museum established in 1888, with a collection of 3,500 instruments.

This area was Gay Central during the Weimar Republic, and it is today. But of course all are welcome. There is a diverse mix of restaurants and stores, several of which are open till midnight or later every day. The U-Bahn station has a superstructure and towers that echo the appearance of the Art Nouveau Neues Schauspielhaus across the street, now the Metropol, where radical left-wing dramas used to be presented in the 20s and 30s, and it is lit in rainbow colors.

The largest zoo in the world, both in terms of number of species (1500) and animal population (14,000). It is especially famous for its pandas. The Elephant Gate (Budapester Straße), one of the two entrances and next to the Aquarium, is a traditional photo stop for most visitors because of the architecture.