What to see

Altes Museum

A Prussian king gives the order; Karl Friedrich Schinkel answers with a grand Neoclassical museum. The royal world moves on, but the building keeps its original job.

Bodestraße

Pergamon Museum

In October 2023, the last visitors filed out and the doors closed with an implied message: “See you in a decade or two.” The building in front of you is now both a museum and a very large promise.

Am Kupfergraben 5

East Side Gallery

Spring 1990: brushes meet concrete. After decades as part of a border system, this stretch of Wall is becoming a kilometre-long public argument about freedom.

Mühlenstraße, 13127 Berlin

Alte Nationalgalerie

At the foot of the staircase, a Prussian king still gets top billing: his memorial occupies the grand approach to the gallery he ordered. Berlin has turned the walk to a museum door into theatre.

Bodestraße 1-3

German Historical Museum

An old armoury is sitting out the action while its modern sidekick keeps the museum running. That is Berlin in miniature: the past under renovation, with history continuing next door.

Unter den Linden 2

Friedrichswerder Church

Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Berlin’s Neoclassical star, switches architectural languages and gives the city its first Neo-Gothic church. Nearly two centuries later, construction next door forces the whole place to close.

Falkoniergasse

Academy of Arts, Berlin

It is 1696, and Berlin’s artists have been given a place to meet, argue and swap ideas. Three centuries later, their academy would split in two—and then find its way back together.

Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin

Alexanderplatz

A traveler stops over a map; commuters stream around them. Look up and the nearby TV Tower gives away exactly where you are: Alexanderplatz, Berlin’s square that behaves more like a launch pad.

Gendarmenmarkt

Friedrich Schiller holds the centre while two churches and a concert hall face him across the square. The scene looks composed and complete; during the Second World War, most of it was badly damaged or destroyed.

Gendarmenmarkt 7

Bebelplatz

The street sign says Bebelplatz; the old Berlin name says Opernplatz. One square, two identities—and the opera still makes a strong case for the original.

Bebelplatz 1

Wittenbergplatz

A train hums beneath your feet, shoppers make for KaDeWe, and a 19th-century military credit mix-up is still baked into the street names. Wittenbergplatz is Berlin in layers: Prussian planning, early U-Bahn ambition and serious retail.

Wittenbergplatz

Friedrichstadt-Palast

In 1985, the old Friedrichstadt-Palast comes down near Schiffbauerdamm. Yet the name is still glowing in front of you. Same institution, different building—a very Berlin plot twist.

Friedrichstraße 107

Berlin State Opera

Frederick the Great wants an opera house, and subtlety is not part of the plan: it will stand alone in central Berlin like a monument. Two centuries later, bombing damages it—and East Berlin rebuilds the royal stage.

Unter den Linden 7

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Sometime before 2010, bass is already shaking this plain building beside Ostkreuz. The club has not officially opened; the illegal rave inside has simply beaten it to the punch.

Markgrafendamm 24c, 10245 Berlin

New Synagogue Berlin

The dome and towers put on a convincing show of completeness. Look behind the facade, though, and the synagogue’s missing heart becomes the whole story.

Oranienburger Straße 29

St. Mary’s Church

Berlin, 1243: an accusation of stolen wafers leads to the burning of Jewish people. It is the first known story attached to this church site—and its darkest.

Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 8

Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park

Berlin, April 1945: the Battle of Berlin is underway. By its end in May, 80,000 Red Army soldiers will have fallen. Four years later, this park becomes East Germany’s central place of remembrance for the war.

Puschkinallee