Sightseeing

Sightseeing Overview

No city in the world has had as dramatic a recent history as Berlin - the decadent and artistic Weimar Berlin of ‘Cabaret' fame gave way in the 1930s to Hitler's Nazi capital earmarked to be rebuilt as the world capital Germania, though the massive destruction brought about by first allied bombing and then the Red Army put paid to that.

The city was divided into four sections after the war, and from 1962 the infamous Berlin Wall imprisoned East Berliners and became the Cold War's most visible scar. The wall fell in 1989, and as Germany reunited, Berlin became Europe's biggest building site - refusing its fragmented neighbourhoods and no man's lands into one modern metropolis.

The densest array of sights in Berlin lies to the east of the Brandenburg Gate, on either side of Unter den Linden, which is lined with many 18th- and 19th-century buildings. At its end are the artistic and architectural treasures of the Museumsinsel, where the city's best museums and main cathedral, the Berliner Dom, can be found.

Further on is the Communist-era Fernsehturm (television tower), on Alexanderplatz, which used to mark the centre of East Berlin. Just south of the Brandenburg Gate is the extraordinary and deeply moving Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which opened in 2005. Beyond the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate) is the Reichstag, sporting Lord Foster's glass dome, the Siegessäule (Victory Column), and the Tiergarten, Berlin's largest park.

Tourist Information

Visit Berlin
Tel: (030) 250 025.
Website: www.visitberlin.de

Hauptbahnhof (Main Station)
Opening hours: Daily 0800-2200.

Brandenburg Gate (South Wing), Pariser Platz (East Berlin)
Opening hours: Daily 1000-1800, opens later Apr-Oct.

The City of Berlin provides online information (www.berlin.de), some of it in English.

Passes

Berlin Tourismus Marketing offers the WelcomeCard, (www.visitberlin.de/welcomecard) which gives discounts on museums and attractions (including Schloss Sanssouci and Zoologischer Garten) as well as guided tours, boat trips and performances in both Berlin and Potsdam.