4 days in Berlin

Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial

The Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial is a museum and memorial located in Lichtenberg district, Berlin in the locality of Alt-Hohenschönhausen, part of the former borough of Hohenschönhausen. It was opened in 1994 on the site of the main political prison of the former East German Communist Ministry of State Security, the Stasi.

Volkspark Friedrichshain

Volkspark Friedrichshain is a large urban park on the border of the Berlin neighborhoods of Friedrichshain and Prenzlauer Berg. The oldest public park in Berlin, at 52 hectares, it is also the fourth-largest, after Tempelhofer Park, Tiergarten, and Jungfernheide.

Nikolaikirche (Berlin)

The St. Nikolai-Kirche, is the oldest church in Berlin, the capital of Germany. The church is located in the eastern part of central Berlin, the borough of Mitte. The area around the church, bounded by Spandauer Straße, Rathausstraße, the River Spree and Mühlendamm, is known as the Nikolaiviertel 'Nicholas quarter', and is an area of restored medieval buildings. The church was built between 1220 and 1230, and is thus, along with the Church of Our Lady at Alexanderplatz not far away, the oldest church in Berlin.

Berlinische Galerie

The Berlinische Galerie is a museum of modern art, photography and architecture in Berlin. It is located in Kreuzberg, on Alte Jakobstraße, not far from the Jewish Museum. The Berlinische Galerie collects art created in Berlin since 1870 with a regional and international focus. Since September 2010, the museum's director has been the art historian Thomas Köhler, until then deputy director, succeeding Jörn Merkert.

Görlitzer Park

Görlitzer Park is a major park and recreation area in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin. The 14-hectare park area contains, among other things, a petting zoo, several sports and football fields, and a small lake. At its north-west end is the Görlitzer Bahnhof U-Bahn station.

East Side Gallery

The East Side Gallery memorial in Berlin-Friedrichshain is a permanent open-air gallery on the longest surviving section of the Berlin Wall in Mühlenstraße between the Berlin Ostbahnhof and the Oberbaumbrücke along the Spree. It consists of a series of murals painted directly on a 1,316 m (4,318 ft) long remnant of the Berlin Wall, located near the centre of Berlin, on Mühlenstraße in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic. Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government of the GDR on 13 August 1961. It included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches, beds of nails and other defenses. The primary intention for the Wall's construction was to prevent East German citizens from fleeing to the West.

Soviet War Memorial

The Soviet War Memorial is a war memorial and military cemetery in Berlin's Treptower Park. It was built to the design of the Soviet architect Yakov Belopolsky to commemorate 7,000 of the 80,000 Red Army soldiers who fell in the Battle of Berlin in April–May 1945. It opened four years after the end of World War II in Europe, on 8 May 1949. The Memorial served as the central war memorial of East Germany.

Alexanderplatz

Alexanderplatz is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin. The square is named after the Russian Tsar Alexander I, which also denotes the larger neighbourhood stretching from Mollstraße in the north-east to Spandauer Straße and the Rotes Rathaus in the south-west.

World Clock

The World Clock, also known as the Urania World Clock, is a large turret-style world clock located in the public square of Alexanderplatz in Mitte, Berlin. By reading the markings on its metal rotunda, the current time for 148 major cities from around the world can be determined. Since its erection by the German Democratic Republic in 1969, it has been a tourist attraction and meeting place. In July 2015, the federal German government declared the clock as a historically and culturally significant monument.

Fernsehturm Berlin

The Fernsehturm in central Berlin was constructed between 1965 and 1969 by the government of the German Democratic Republic as both a functional broadcasting facility and a symbol of communist power.

Berlin Cathedral

Berlin Cathedral, also known as the Evangelical Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church, is a monumental German Protestant church and dynastic tomb at the Lustgarten on the Museum Island in central Berlin. Having its origins as a castle chapel for the Berlin Palace, several structures have served to house the church since the 15th century. The present collegiate church was built from 1894 to 1905 by order of Emperor William II according to plans by Julius Raschdorff in Renaissance and Baroque Revival styles. The listed building is the largest Protestant church in Germany and one of the most important dynastic tombs in Europe. In addition to church services, the cathedral is used for state ceremonies, concerts and other events.

Deutsches Historisches Museum

The German Historical Museum, known by the acronym DHM, is a museum in Berlin, Germany devoted to German history. It describes itself as a place of "enlightenment and understanding of the shared history of Germans and Europeans". It is often viewed as one of the most important museums in Berlin and is one of the most frequented. The museum is located in the 17th-century Zeughaus (armoury) on the Unter den Linden, just across the Spree from Museum Island. The museum's attached Exhibition Hall was designed by I. M. Pei in the late 20th century. The Zeughaus is closed for renovation, while the Exhibition Hall remains open.

Pariser Platz

Pariser Platz is a square in the historic center of Berlin, Germany, situated by the Brandenburg Gate at the end of Unter den Linden boulevard. The square is named after the French capital of Paris to commemorate the victory of the Sixth Coalition over the French Empire at the Battle of Paris (1814), and is one of the main focal points of the city.

Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, Germany. One of the best-known landmarks of the country, it was erected on the site of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to Brandenburg an der Havel, the former capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The current structure was built from 1788 to 1791 by orders of King Frederick William II of Prussia, based on designs by the royal architect Carl Gotthard Langhans. The bronze sculpture of the quadriga crowning the gate is a work by the sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow.

Reichstag

The Reichstag is a historic legislative government building on Platz der Republik in Berlin that is the seat of the German Bundestag. It is also the meeting place of the Federal Convention, which elects the President of Germany.

Wrapped Reichstag

Wrapped Reichstag, Project for Berlin is a 1995 environmental artwork by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The wrapped up Reichstag building is one of the most well-known public art projects. Aluminum-coated propylene was used for a wrapper.

Soviet War Memorial

The Soviet War Memorial is one of several war memorials in Berlin, the capital city of Germany, erected by the Soviet Union to commemorate its war dead, particularly the 80,000 soldiers of the Soviet Armed Forces who died during the Battle of Berlin in April and May 1945.

Großer Tiergarten

The Tiergarten, formal German name: Großer Tiergarten, is a prominent park in Berlin's inner-city area, located completely in the district of the same name. It is one of the most popular parks in the city and at 210 hectares in size, is among the largest urban gardens in Germany. Only the Tempelhofer Park and Munich's Englischer Garten are larger.

Luisenplatz

Church Of Peace

The Protestant Church of Peace is situated in the Marly Gardens on the Green Fence in the palace grounds of Sanssouci Park in Potsdam, Germany. The church was built according to the wishes and with the close involvement of the artistically gifted King Frederick William IV and designed by the court architect, Ludwig Persius. After Persius' death in 1845, the architect Friedrich August Stüler was charged with continuing his work. Building included work by Ferdinand von Arnim and Ludwig Ferdinand Hesse also. The church is located in the area covered by the UNESCO World Heritage Site Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin.

Marlygarten (Sanssouci)

Sanssouci Palace

Sanssouci is a historical building in Potsdam, near Berlin. Built by Prussian King Frederick the Great as his summer palace, it is often counted among the German rivals of Versailles. While Sanssouci is in the more intimate Rococo style and is far smaller than its French Baroque counterpart, it is similarly notable for the numerous temples and follies in the surrounding park. The palace was designed and built by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff between 1745 and 1747 to meet Frederick's need for a private residence where he could escape the pomp and ceremony of the royal court. The palace's name is a French phrase meaning "without worries" or "carefree", emphasising that the palace was meant as a place of relaxation rather than a seat of power.

Sanssouci Picture Gallery

The Picture Gallery in the Sanssouci Park of Potsdam was built in 1755–64 during the reign of Frederick II of Prussia under the supervision of Johann Gottfried Büring. The Picture Gallery is situated east of the palace and is the oldest extant museum built for a ruler in Germany.

Winzerberg In Potsdam, Germany

Museum Island

The Museum Island is a museum complex on the northern part of Spree Island in the historic heart of Berlin, Germany. It is one of the capital's most visited sights and one of the most important museum sites in Europe. Originally built from 1830 to 1930, initially by order of the Prussian Kings, according to plans by five architects, the Museum Island was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999 because of its testimony to the architectural and cultural development of museums in the 19th and 20th centuries. It consists of the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Bode-Museum and the Pergamon Museum. As the Museum Island designation includes all of Spree Island north of the Karl Liebknecht Boulevard, the historic Berlin Cathedral is also located there, next to the open Lustgarten park. To the south of Liebknecht Boulevard, the reconstructed Berlin Palace houses the Humboldt Forum museum and opened in 2020. Also adjacent, across the west branch of the Spree is the German Historical Museum. Since German reunification, the Museum Island has been rebuilt and extended according to a master plan. In 2019, a new visitor center and art gallery, the James Simon Gallery, was opened within the Museum Island heritage site.

Pergamon Museum

The Pergamon Museum is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin, Germany. It was built from 1910 to 1930 by order of Emperor Wilhelm II and according to plans by Alfred Messel and Ludwig Hoffmann in Stripped Classicism style. As part of the Museum Island complex, the Pergamon Museum was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999 because of its architecture and testimony to the evolution of museums as architectural and social phenomena.

Bebelplatz

The Bebelplatz is a public square in the central Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany. Following World War II, the square was renamed after August Bebel, a founder of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in the 19th century.

St. Hedwig's Cathedral

St. Hedwig's Cathedral is the Catholic cathedral of the Archdiocese of Berlin on Bebelplatz in the historic centre of Berlin. Dedicated in honor of Hedwig of Silesia, it was erected from 1747 to 1773 by order of Frederick the Great according to plans by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff in Baroque style. Damaged during the Allied bombing in World War II, the cathedral's interior was restored from 1952 to 1963 in post-war modernist style as part of the rebuilding of the Forum Fridericianum on Bebelplatz. The listed building was closed for renovation work from 2018 and reopened on November 24, 2024 with a modern interior design.

Gendarmenmarkt

The Gendarmenmarkt is a square in Berlin and the site of an architectural ensemble that includes the Berlin concert hall, along with the French and German Churches. In the centre of the square stands a monumental statue of poet Friedrich Schiller. The square was created by Johann Arnold Nering at the end of the seventeenth century as the Linden-Markt and reconstructed by Georg Christian Unger in 1773. The Gendarmenmarkt is named after a Prussian cuirassier regiment called the Gendarmen, which had stables at the square until 1773.

Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie was the Western Bloc's name for the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War (1947–1991), becoming a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of East and West.