Meistersaal

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.

German historical museum covering everything from pre-history up to the present day. One can spend many, many hours here! The building from 1695/1730 was the Zeughaus (Arsenal) until 1876.

At 368 metres, the Fernsehturm is Berlin's tallest and indeed EU's second-tallest building, complected between 1965 and 1969. The main function of the building is television broadcasting, but the shiny sphere atop the tower houses a viewing platform, a restaurant and a Berlin Tourist Information point. The viewing platform sits 203 metres above ground, affording views of as much as 42 km away and featuring a bar. Given how flat Berlin is, it's not a very interesting view however and the state of the glass means that you can't get good photos either. The Sphere restaurant at 207 metres rotates at a speed of one full spin per 30 minutes. There are two lifts from the base to the platform and cafe, taking 40 seconds to reach the top, as well as a 986-step staircase. The Fernsehturm is not accessible to wheelchair users.Not all of the Berliners liked the tower and the overall composition of the Alexanderplatz afforded by the socialist city planners. East German T.V. tried to establish the nickname "Telespargel" ("television asparagus") which however doesn't seem to have caught on. During certain times of day, sunlight reflecting from the top caused a large cross-shaped light to shine down on the city. Called the Rache des Papstes (Pope's revenge) by nominally atheist East Berliners, the light-cross was an ironic result of socialist architecture. Rumour has it the architect was deprived of more than his next commission after that fiasco. At night, the Fernsehturm sometimes appears to be shooting light beams from the tower section, giving the impression it's a Death Star à la Star Wars.

The building by Le Corbusier from 1957 stands close to the stadium. It is one of the manifestations of an important architect of the 20th century. You can see a building that influenced the way of designing modern residential blocks all over the world.

This castle is one of Berlin's oldest castles and where Prince Carl used to reside. Be sure to check out Glienicke Bridge, the bridge that became renowned for the exchange of Western and Eastern secret agents. You can also visit Glienicke Park.

The heart of Friedrichshain and its nightlife with numerous cafés, bars and restaurants along its entire extent and also in the side streets.

The second largest Jewish cemetery in Europe.

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.

The French cathedral houses the Hugenottenmuseum. It represents the ongoing influence on Berlin by the Huguenots who emigrated from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Crown Prince Friedrich William encouraged them to settle here because most of them were skilled workers or otherwise useful to the kingdom. One memorable artwork, in room nine of the museum, pictures Crown Princess Dorothea exclaiming "But he's a refugee!" upon being presented a very valuable set of jewels by Pierre Fromery. The generally agreed-upon view of refugees as poor, without resources let alone diamonds, was blown apart by the talented French Protestants forced to leave their country due to religion. One of the most notable effects of having such a large French population was their influence on the infamous Berlin dialect. Berlinerisch words such as Kinkerlitzchen (from French "quincaillerie" - kitchen equipment) and Muckefuck (from French "mocca faux" - artificial coffee, though that etymology is not universally accepted) are unique to the area. The Französischen Dom (cathedral) itself was built to resemble the main church of the Huguenots in Charenton, France, destroyed in 1688. It has housed the museum since 1929. Closed till 2019

Started in the 15th century and finished in the mid-18th century, the baroque palace was the residence of electors, kings and emperors until 1918, when it became a museum. The palace was badly damaged during World War II and later razed in 1950, replaced by the GDR with a modernist Palast der Republik. The Palast was in turn gradually dismantled at the turn of the century, as it was discovered to contain asbestos and its former function of housing the GDR parliament became obsolete. Berlin has started in June 2013 construction on a new version of its historic Stadtschloss. The Schlüterhof, an inner courtyard, was also rebuilt. The building opened with a delay in 2021 with museums inside and a roof terrace with a good view. Among the Berlin museums this is perhaps the most controversial due to reconstruction of a monarchist palace being seen as a questionable political statement and due to the fact that many of the exhibits were sourced from German colonies under ethically questionable circumstances leading to demands to return some or all of them to their places of origin.

This would be a perfectly ordinary neighbourhood of Berlin or perhaps neighbouring Potsdam visible only on maps that show the border between Berlin and Potsdam if not for its history. While the Berlin border during German partition included a number of enclaves and exclaves, this is the only place where a significant number (some 300 people) ended up on an "island" of West Berlin surrounded by East German territory. Some complicated corridor solutions were applied for people from Steinstücken to be able to get to West Berlin proper without the need for lengthy border formalities. These days, like before partition, people in Steinstücken tend to use the services of Potsdam more than those of Berlin on a day-to-day basis.

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.

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.

The garden is part of the Free University of Berlin.

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.

The memorial site stretches along the full 1.5-km length of Bernauer Straße. The listing marker points to the visitor centre. Various monuments can be found along the entire length of the street, documenting nearby escape attempts and tunnels; captions are in German and English. The documentation centre across the street on Bernauer Straße/Ackerstraße is excellent (although most of the documentation is in German). The viewing platform next to the documentation centre gives you a tiny hint of the true scale of the Wall and how terrifying the "no man's land" between the two sections of walls must have been. The monument (that you can see from the platform) is a complete section of 4th generation wall - both inside and outside sections, and you can peer through from the east side to see the remains of the electric fence and anti-tank devices in the death strip. It really helps you understand what an incredible feat it was to get from one side to the other -- and why so many died doing it. The memorial site is often missed by tourists but an absolute must for anyone interested in this part of the city's history. It's a memorial to those who died crossing, so you won't, fortunately, get the tackiness of the Checkpoint Charlie area; instead you will be left with a haunting feeling of what life with the wall may have been really like.Bernauer Straße is a street with a great deal of Wall history: it came to tragic prominence on August 13, 1961 when East German authorities closed the border and the street (with houses in the East but the street in the West). Border guards walled the doors and windows shut to keep Easterners from escaping by jumping out the window while Westerners (including police and fire brigades who brought life nets to help catch refugees) looked on in horror. The first recorded Wall-related death - the notorious Peter Fechter case (he bled to death in the "no-man's-land" with both sides unwilling or unable to help him) - was here, as was one of the famous tunnels and the famous photograph of the GDR border guard leaping over the barbed wire.

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.

Gothic church, the second oldest (built in late 13th century) of the historical centre of Berlin. It's the highest church tower of Berlin (about 90 m), but seems rather small beneath the gigantic TV tower. The church tower was built in the late 18th century by Carl Gotthard Langhans, the architect of the Brandenburg Gate.

The biggest of its sort in Europe. At the museum district of Dahlem.

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).