Berlin, Germany – Top 20 sights and things to do and visit

Edson Amorina Jr

2 years ago

Berlin, Germany - Top 20 sights and things to do and visit

The city of Berlin is like no other in Germany, mainly because of its eventful history (to say the least). The country’s capital was destroyed, split in two, rebuilt and reunited. And today it is one of the main tourist destinations in Europe with lots to see, visit and do.

Berlin has gained a reputation as an alternative European tourist center, with tours, clubs, funky bars, with lots of fun but conscious. Along with its historic beauty, the city has many places to discover.

We’ve listed some of the top experiences and destinations so that every tourist and traveler doesn’t leave Berlin without falling in love.

If you are looking for a travel option in Summer, the best suggestion is the Tropical Island Resort, the largest water park in the world in Germany.

For planning a trip to Germany, we have some publications that can help a lot:

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What to do in Berlin, Germany?

Before discovering the main sights of the city, we also recommend reading about our visit to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp 1 hour from Berlin in Germany.

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Berlin Museum Island

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Museum Island on the River Spree in Berlin is a collection of five world-famous museums, which are the Altes Museum, the Alte National Gallery, the Neues Museum, the Bode Museum and the Pergamon Museum. .

Its construction is a product of the German Enlightenment and plans began in the early 19th century. The museums were also an opportunity to showcase the wealth and sophistication of Prussia’s royal collections and the fruits of their 19th century victories.

The first institution to open was the Altes Museum in 1830, designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who designed several neoclassical monuments around Berlin in that period. The last was the Pergamon Forum from 1930, while the Neues Museum from 1859 was reopened in 2009, having been destroyed in the war.

Be sure to buy tickets and tours to the museums in advance:

Holocaust Memorial in Berlin

Not far from the Brandenburg Gate is the solemn and powerful memorial to the Holocaust, designed by New York architect Peter Eisenman.

Situated in what used to be the “Berlin Wall death strip”, are 2,711 concrete blocks of varying heights, in a grid pattern in an undulating open space that lends the memorial an undulating shape. The blocks are on 54 north-south lines and 87 perpendicular lines from east to west.

The memorial encourages you to interact and reflect. There is also an underground gallery: a network of themed rooms offers information about Jewish victims of the Holocaust, with biographies, letters and personal effects of some of the victims.

Try to see this GUIDED TOUR – Berlin: Third Reich Walking Tour.

Brandenburg Gate

For newcomers to Berlin, the Brandenburger Tor is a must and is loaded with real emotion and meaning. It is an ever-present landmark since the destruction of World War II and the division of the Berlin Wall.

It sits at the intersection of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße and has to be the most recognizable sight in Germany. The ceremonial monument was erected at the turn of the 1790s by order of the Prussian King Frederick William II, on the site of one of Berlin’s former defensive gates.

At the top is the Quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses, all supported by 12 Doric columns that form five aisles.

Be sure to check out the option to purchase EasyCityPass Berlin: Public Transport and Discounts.

Reichstag

Another landmark that sums up Germany’s 20th century in Berlin is the Reichstag, the meeting place of the German Parliament. The neo-baroque building was built in 1894 until it was destroyed in the historic fire in 1933. Its ruins were preserved, and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a restoration project by architect Norman Foster began to resurrect the Reichstag. as an emblem of a unified Germany.

The plan included a new glass dome from which you can look into the debating chamber and enjoy the cityscape of Berlin. The tour offers an audio guide that is very worthwhile, to know more about the place.

Suggestion Reichstag: Tour with Plenary Chamber and Dome in German.

Topography of Terror

Like the Holocaust Memorial to the Jews murdered in World War II, the Topography of Terror remains another message not to be forgotten by future generations.

On Niederkirchnerstrasse is the former location of the Gestapo and the SS, two names that are instantly connected to possibly the most infamous period in European history. The headquarters of these institutions were bombed in the great war and then demolished, before being abandoned in the course of the wall, which still exists.

And in the excavated ruins of these headquarters, there is an outdoor exhibition, recalling life in Berlin during the Third Reich, the history of the SS and the Gestapo, their main figures and the deeds that were hatched in this place.

GUIDED TOUR Berlin: Small-Group Third Reich and Cold War Walking Tour.

Fernsehturm

Building alongside Alexanderplatz in the late 1960s, the Fernsehturm (TV Tower) was conceived as a highly visible symbol of East Berlin’s communist power.

The second tallest structure in the entire European Union, the tower is as much a landmark for Berlin as the Reichstag or the Brandenburg Gate.

The Fernsehturm is also the tallest building in Europe open to the public and, as long as you plan ahead, the 40-second elevator ride to the 200-metre observation deck height is something you can’t refuse.

From this height, you have a wide view of the city and you can also go to a revolving restaurant, which needs a reservation if you want a table.

Buy here to skip the line Berlin: TV Tower Fast View Ticket.

Jewish Museum in Berlin

On Lindenstraße, the museum covering important Jewish history in Germany opened in 2001 in an acclaimed “deconstructivist” building by Daniel Libeskind. Viewed from above, the museum’s plan resembles lightning and has been compared to a dismantled Star of David.

Once you start walking through its zigzag corridors, there are empty spaces, some 20 meters high that express an interrupted history and the sense of loss of the holocaust.

The permanent exhibition tells the story of Jews in Germany, starting in the cities along the Rhine in medieval times. The hope and prosperity of 18th and 19th century Jewish emancipation gives way to National Socialism and the horrors that followed.

An alternate axis takes you to the Garden of Exile and another to the Holocaust Tower, a 24-meter hollow silo.

Be sure to buy the ticket to the Jewish Museum in Berlin in advance.

Berlin Cathedral

Not strictly a cathedral, as it was never the seat of a German bishop, this temple on Museum Island is still the most important Protestant church in Berlin. In historicist style and was completed in 1904. Berlin Cathedral suffered damage in World War II when the dome was destroyed, but the building never collapsed and became a landmark for Germany.

Restoration began in the 1970s and lasted until 1993. Through the portal, there is a profusion of jewellery, mosaics, sculptures and a mosaic carved in marble and onyx by the architect Friedrich August Stüler.

Be sure to enter the crypt, resting place of the House of Hohenzollern, which produced Prussian kings and German emperors.

Alexanderplatz

The largest square in Germany, Alexanderplatz is one of the most dynamic and exciting corners of Berlin.

This former parade site became the city’s main commercial district in the early 20th century. The square was completely destroyed in World War II and owes its reconstruction to a GDR project during the 1960s. At the time of the German division, “Alex” was the scene of many public meetings, including the peaceful protests against the wall in 1989.< /p>

The pace of transformation since the fall of the wall has been dramatic, and following developments like the Alexa mall, Alexanderplatz is a major shopping and entertainment destination once again.

Much of the GDR’s concrete architecture remains, most notably in the unforgettable silhouette of Fernsehturm.

See guided tours in Alexanderplatz and more.

DDR Museum

Believe it or not, but German nostalgia for the former East Germany, the German Democratic Republic, is quite strong in the country.

The DDR Museum opened in front of Berlin Cathedral in 2006 and is a complete repository for the German Democratic Republic, documenting the good and bad of that period. Among many things, you can check out the decor and furniture of a typical apartment in an East German “plattenbau” concrete tower block and see what it’s like to drive a Trabant.

In 27 themed spaces, there are Free German Youth (FDJ) memorabilia, recordings of East German music, a reproduction of a classroom, but also information about the notorious Stasi and their efforts to pry into the lives of thousands of citizens.

Buy your ticket in advance: East German Museum Ticket.

Checkpoint Charlie

The intersection of Friedrichstraße and Zimmerstraße is the site of the legendary border crossing between East and West Berlin.

This very spot was almost the scene of a catastrophe in 1961, when American and Soviet tanks clashed for six days at the end of October. Later, in 1962, he witnessed the death of Peter Fechter, a teenager shot while trying to cross the divide between the two Germanys.

Fun fact, the name doesn’t refer to any person, but to the phonetic alphabet (Charlie means C), since Checkpoint Charlie was the third border crossing created by the allies in the city.

Although not that impressive, the guardhouse and sandbags in the center of the street are worth a photo on your trip.

GUIDED TOUR Berlin: Cold War Walking Tour.

East Side Gallery

The Warschauer Straße station is the place to start a walk along the longest preserved stretch of the Berlin Wall. Each piece of the wall was shared between artists who painted and graffitied, making it the longest open-air gallery in the world.

A curiosity is that the drawings are constantly being replaced and updated, with the exception of just a few that have gained more prominence. Including the painting showing GDR leader Erich Honecker and Communist Party general secretary Leonid Brezhnev kissing. Most of the work is bold, colorful and thought-provoking. Painted by Dimitri Vrubel in 1990, it was restored by the artist in 2009 as part of an ongoing struggle to preserve the most famous images in the face of erosion and marking.

Top sights near East Side Gallery.

Konzerthaus Berlin

The great concert hall at the Gendarmenmarkt was actually a theater for most of its history. Like the Königliches Schauspielhaus, and later the Preußisches Staatstheater, the most illustrious actors of the 19th century performed on its stage.

Like many structures in Berlin, the Konzerthaus Berlin functioned until World War II, when it was bombed and destroyed.

The ruins were left untouched until the building was restored as a concert hall and venue for the Berlin Symphony Orchestra (now the Konzerthausorchester Berlin). Check the season in advance and be sure to get a seat, as its acoustics are among the top five in the world.

Gedächtniskirche

The original Kaiser Wilhelm Church was built in the 1890s and was in a Neo-Romanesque style. She was part of the Kaiser nation-building project to fend off the growing labor movement and was named after her grandfather.

Seriously damaged in a bombing raid in 1943, after the war there was a great deal of debate as to whether it should be demolished or rebuilt. As Germany makes a strong effort not to forget its history, in the end, the architect Egon Eiermann designed an impressive modern church next to the ruins.

This new building has walls inlaid with over 20,000 blue stained glass panels and consecrated in 1961. The damaged and surviving tower of the old church remains as a memorial, containing an anti-war exhibit with a crucifix made from nails collected in the

DAY TRIP Berlin: All-in-One Famous Landmarks Guided Bus Tour.

Sony Center

The Sony Center is a kind of square, surrounded by impressive glass towers and protected by a tent-shaped roof, which creates a real sensation of spectacle. The main structure of Potsdamer Platz, the building complex constructed during the 1990s, designed by Helmut Jahn and Peter Walker.

All around you are shops, hotels, museums, cinemas, an IMAX cinema, restaurants and offices.

There’s free Wi-Fi on the plaza and kids are sure to be drawn to the branch of the Legoland Discovery Center, an indoor theme park based on the beloved construction toy. Unfortunately it is necessary to buy tickets in advance.

Buy Legoland® Discovery Center Ticket.

Potsdamer Platz

In the southeastern corner of the Tiergarten, Potsdamer Platz was an empty no man’s land, divided by the wall from the end of the war until the 1990s. That was a long way off. from the golden twenties, when the square was the bustling center of the city, an equivalent of New York’s Times Square for its transportation, shopping, entertainment and nightlife connections.

After the wall fell, the architects were given a blank canvas to reinvent a unified Berlin, transforming the square into a showcase for a modern, forward-thinking capital.

The Daimler Haus-Huth here was the only frontage to survive the ravages of war, and behind it is a free museum of modern and contemporary art, investigating the movements from Bauhaus to Minimalism.

WATER ACTIVITY Berlin: Half-Day Spree & Landwehrkanal Boat Tour.

Teufelsberg

In the northernmost reaches of Grunewald is the extraordinary Teufelsberg, an artificial hill with a summit of 120 meters. When the streets of Berlin were cleared at the end of the war, the wreckage of some 400,000 bomb-hit buildings was deposited in the forest.

The hill was started in 1950 and the last wreckage was dropped in 1972. All of this was dumped on top of an incomplete Nazi military technical academy designed by Albert Speer. Like many Nazi concrete buildings, the academy proved too difficult to demolish with explosives, so it was buried. In the 1960s, an American listening station was built on top, and urban explorers will love to roam this abandoned site.

Today it is an extraordinary artistic center with urban arts, graffiti, graffiti and artistic works scattered all over its walls. If that appeals to you, it’s worth knowing.

There is an interesting tour in case you don’t have a car: Teufelsberg Listening Station Tour with Space Shuttle.

Bauhaus Archive

The impact of the Bauhaus School (1919-1933) on architecture and design is huge and in the Bauhaus Archive Museum you will see the greatest variety of works from the movement.

The location was built in the 1960s and its futuristic appearance and serrated lines made it a filming location for films such as Æon Flux and V for Vendetta. The exhibition, in turn, reveals the origins of the Bauhaus movement and its key figures, and features models by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius.

There is also art from the period by László Moholy-Nagy, Paul Klee, Kandinsky, Lionel Feininger, in addition to a complete library for movement, furniture by Gunta Stölzl, Marcel Breuer and Josef Pohl, with various sketches, schemes and photography.< /p>

Be sure to check out Bus Tour of the Bauhaus.

Oberbaumbrücke

One of the sights in Berlin worth visiting is the Oberbaum Bridge which crosses the river Spree between Kreuzberg and Frierichshain .

When Berlin was divided after World War II, the border between the former American Zone and East Berlin was on the right bank of the Spree and the Oberbaumbrücke became a armed checkpoint. And when the wall came down in 1989, many historic photos and images were taken there.

Since then road and U-Bahn traffic has resumed, and the bridge has been restored to its 19th-century Neo-Gothic appearance. Moviegoers can also check out Oberbaumbrücke from Run Lola Run and the The Bourne Supremacy movies.