Schloss Tegel is a remarkable classical castle built between 1820 and 1824 by the renowned architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Medium in size yet rich in character, it carries the affectionate name “Humboldtschlösschen” because the brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt, along with their family, once lived here. Today, the property remains in private ownership, preserving a quiet, dignified presence.
Schinkel’s design is clear and balanced, with clean lines and graceful proportions that reflect the ideals of classical architecture. The castle’s measured symmetry, understated ornament, and carefully framed views speak to an era that valued reason and harmony. The setting and the structure together evoke a sense of thoughtful calm.
Schloss Tegel is inseparable from the story of the Humboldt family. Alexander von Humboldt, the explorer and scientist, and Wilhelm von Humboldt, the statesman and scholar, are central figures in German intellectual history. Their time here gives the house a distinct cultural weight, connecting the elegant rooms and grounds with ideas that traveled far beyond its walls.
Because the castle is still privately owned, it maintains a discreet atmosphere. The exterior and its surrounding landscape retain the dignified tone of a lived-in historical residence rather than a museum setting. The place stands as a quiet witness to architectural craft and a family’s far-reaching influence.
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Tegel
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.
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.
One of the oldest buildings in Charlottenburg and actually the reason for the whole city to be built.
Erected in 1818 to a classically-inspired design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel as a guardhouse for the imperial palace, since 1993 this compact building has housed a small, but extremely powerful war cenotaph, the Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany, continuing its use under East German rule as the primary "Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism". The interior of the Doric column-fronted building is intentionally empty, but for a small but moving sculpture by Käthe Kollwitz depicting a mother cradling a dead child. The statue is positioned beneath a round hole in the ceiling, exposing the figures to the rain and snow.
A small castle in late classical style. It was built 1868 by Martin Gropius (uncle of the Bauhaus-founder and other architects, the von Siemens family changed the castle a bit around 1900 and they enlarged the dimensions of the park, which is today renovated and nice to wander around when the sun is shining. Located within a few minutes' walking distance from Biesdorf station (take the S5 from the city centre) or Elsterwerdaer Platz station (U5).
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.
The Bayerischer Platz is the centre of the Bayerisches Viertel ("Bavarian district", with many streets named after Bavarian cities), which was destroyed a lot more during World War II (about 60%). Somewhere around there Albert Einstein lived once. You’ll find several memorial signs providing information about the Nazi regime's persecution of gays and Jews.
At a former Luftwaffe and Royal Air Force (RAF) airfield, RAF Gatow. The museum's focus is on military history, particularly the history of the Luftwaffe of the Bundeswehr, with a collection of more than 200,000 items, including 155 aeroplanes, 5,000 uniforms and 30,000 books. There are also displays (including aeroplanes) on the history of the airfield when it was used by the RAF. Aircraft include reproductions of Otto Lilienthal's gliders, of World War I planes such as the Fokker E.III, and World War II planes such as the Bf 109 and Me-262, as well as at least one aircraft of every type ever to serve in the air forces of East and West Germany. Most of those postwar aircraft are stored outside on the tarmac and runways, however, and many are in bad condition. There are long term restoration projects, including a Focke-Wulf Fw 190. RAF Gatow is notable as the "missing third airport" of West Berlin. Each sector used to have its own airport; the French sector had Tegel, the American sector had Tempelhof and the British had Gatow. However, RAF Gatow never saw much traffic of any kind, was more kept as a political statement than for transportation value, and thus was shut down after reunification. Tempelhof, after having been shut down for civilian traffic from 1975 to 1981, closed for all flights in 2008, while Tegel shut down in November 2020.
A cuboid made of concrete. On the front side of the cuboid is a window, through which visitors can see a short film of two kissing men. The video will be changed every two years and will also show kissing lesbians.
The main street of former East Berlin. It is a big avenue, featuring neoclassical East German buildings, fountains and lakes.
This museum is perhaps something you wouldn't expect in a major metropolis and truth be told it owes its existence in part to partition (when West Berlin schoolkids couldn't go to the surrounding Brandenburg countryside to experience rural life). Opened in 1975 it is an attempt to recreate as faithfully as feasible a medieval farming village from roughly the era of Berlin's founding (12th or 13th century). The village that existed at this place 800 years ago was not called "Düppel" back then as that name was only applied in the 1860s after the Prussian victory over Denmark at Dybbøl which was rendered into German as "Düppel" and applied to the area to honor a member of the Prussian royal family who owned land there.
With an impressive, circus-tent-like roof over its courtyard and remains of the pre-war Hotel Esplanade incorporated into the modern structure.
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.
The charming Baroque water palace of the Hohenzollern electors surrounded by the Dahme river and an English garden.
The last Mies van der Rohe building (a dwelling house) in Germany before his emigration to the U.S. (1938). Now there are small contemporary/modern art exhibitions.
The main floor houses the antiquities collection in an ongoing exhibit called "Neue Antike im Alten Museum" (New Antiquities in the Old Museum). Directly through the front door, entering from the Lustgarten (Pleasure Garden, now under reconstruction), there is a domed rotunda with red and white cameos, Greek-style, with statues of the gods. To reach the Hildesheim silver collection, go to the back of the rotunda, turn left, walk through the long gallery and turn left into a small room at the end.