Sights in Berlin
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Botanischer Garden
At Botanischer Garden, you'll find several excellent museums.
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Deutsche Guggenheim
High-brow types will likely prefer to steer straight towards the Deutsche Guggenheim, a small, minimalist gallery spotlighting top-notch contemporary artists, such as Eduardo Chillida and Gerhard Richter.
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Pergamonmuseum
An Aladdin’s cave of treasures, the Pergamon opens a fascinating window onto the ancient world and is the one museum in Berlin that should not be missed. Inside the vast complex - custom-built on Museumsinsel in 1930 - awaits a veritable feast of sculpture and monumental architecture from Greece, Rome, Babylon and the Middle East. Most of it was excavated and shipped to Berlin by German archaeologists at the turn of the 20th century. Budget at least two hours for this amazing place and be sure to pick up the free and excellent audioguide. Also note that some sections may be closed while the museum is being renovated and a fourth wing added, all part of Chipperfield’s…
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Olympiastadion
Even though it was put through a total modernisation for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, it’s hard not to remember the fact that this massive coliseum-like stadium was built by the Nazis for the 1936 Olympic Games. The bombastic bulk of the structure undoubtedly remains, although it’s now softened by the addition of a spidery oval roof, snazzy VIP boxes and top-notch sound, lighting and projection systems. It seats up to 74,400 people for games played by the local Hertha BSC soccer team, concerts, the Pope or Madonna.
On non-event days, you can explore the stadium on your own, although renting an audioguide is recommended. Several times daily, guided tours take you into the…
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Café Sybille
Today's Café Sybille is as old as Karl-Marx-Allee and was one of East Berlin's most popular cafes. Still oozing original 1960s GDR charm, it makes for a dapper coffee break and also features a small exhibit charting the milestones of KMA from inception to today. Call ahead to arrange for access to the rooftop terrace for birds-eye views of the boulevard.
The exhibit features portraits and biographies of the architects of KMA, alongside posters, toys and other items from socialist times. There's even a piece of Stalin’s moustache scavenged from the nearby statue that was torn down in 1961. The cafe is also the place to book guided tours of KMA or to pick up a booklet for…
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Mauerpark
From anti-park to Berlin’s most vibrant urban oasis, Mauerpark has become the go-to place in Prenzlauer Berg, and not just for the famous Flohmarkt am Mauerpark (Sunday flea market) and Bearpit Karaoke. Pretty it ain’t, with its scraggly bushes and anaemic lawn, but then you might forgive such aesthetics when realising that it was forged from the former death strip. Yup, the Wall used to run right through here where people now gather for barbecues, basketball, boules and other diversions. A 300m-long stretch of it still stands, but the one-time symbol of oppression is now a legal practice ground for budding graffiti artists. The floodlights behind this colourful strip…
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Botanischer Garden
At Botanischer Garden, you'll find several excellent museums.
reviewed
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Berlin Wall Panorama
For most us it's hard to visualise what Berlin looked like during the Cold War. Yadegar Asisi can fix that. The Berlin artist specialises in creating monumental and bafflingly detailed 360° panoramas. His latest venture, housed in a custom-made steel rotunda at Checkpoint Charlie, vividly captures a scene from daily life on both sides of the Berlin Wall. It shows a dilapidated buildings, playing children and patrolling border guards. The panorama will be on view until at least December 2013.
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Brandenburger Tor & Pariser Platz
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Checkpoint Charlie
Checkpoint Charlie was the principal gateway for foreigners and diplomats between the two Berlins from 1961 to 1990. Unfortunately, this potent symbol of the Cold War has become a tacky tourist trap, although a free open-air exhibit that illustrates milestones in Cold War history is one redeeming aspect.
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Filmmuseum
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Fish Mural
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Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart
Berlin's main contemporary art museum opened in 1996 in an old railway station, whose loft and grandeur are a great backdrop for this Aladdin's cave of paintings, installations, sculptures and video art. Exhibits span the arc of post-1950 artistic endeavour - Conceptual Art, Pop Art, Minimal Art, Fluxus - and include seminal works by key players like Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Joseph Beuys and Robert Rauschenberg.
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Hanf Museum
One of only four in the world devoted to the subject of hemp, the small Hemp Museum gives hobby botanists a chance to expand their knowledge about this versatile plant by studying its cultural, medicinal and religious significance. There are exhibits about the commercial uses of hemp as well as displays on the discussion about the legalisation of marijuana.
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Holocaust Memorial
The football-field-sized Memorial to the Murdered European Jews (colloquially known as the Holocaust Memorial) by American architect Peter Eisenman consists of 2711 sarcophagi-like concrete columns rising in sombre silence from undulating ground. You're free to access this maze at any point and make your individual journey through it. For context visit the subterranean Ort der Information whose exhibits will leave no one untouched. Audioguides are available.
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Lads Mural
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Max Planck Science Gallery
Cutting-edge science discovered or developed by the smart folks of the Max Planck Society research institute is introduced to the non-geek public at this digital gallery. The boundaries between real and virtual worlds are blurred at 3D interactive stations in the minimalist cool one-room space. Exhibits change every few months.
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Museumsinsel
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Potsdamer Platz
The lid was symbolically sealed on capitalism's victory over socialism in Berlin when this postmodern temple to Mammon was erected in 2000 over the former death strip. Under the big-top, glass-tent roof of the Sony Center and along the malls of the Legolike Daimler City, people swarm in and around shops, restaurants, offices, loft apartments, clubs, a cinema, a luxury hotel and a casino – all revitalising what was the busiest square in prewar Europe.
During the International Film Festival Berlin, Potsdamer Platz welcomes Hollywood A-listers. In between you can rub shoulders with German cinematic heroes – particularly Marlene Dietrich – at the Filmmuseum. There's also…
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Reichstag
The Reichstag will likely give you more flashbacks to high-school history than any other Berlin landmark. This grand old building by Paul Wallot (1894) is where the German parliament, the Bundestag, has been hammering out its policies since 1999. This followed a total makeover by architectural top dog Lord Norman Foster, who preserved only the building’s historic shell while adding the striking glass dome which is accessible by lift. There’s almost always a long queue waiting to catch it, though, so budget some extra time - it’s worth it, especially in good weather. Once at the top, take in the 360-degree views from the terrace, then pick up a free audioguide and follow…
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Rounded Heads Mural
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Sad Girl with Rabbit Ears Mural
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Yellow Man Mural
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Neue Staatsbibliothek
The 1978 Neue Staatsbibliothek is across Potsdamer Strasse.
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Marienkirche
This Gothic brick gem has welcomed worshippers since the 13th century, making it one of Berlin’s oldest surviving churches. A faded Dance of Death fresco inspired by the plague of 1486 in the vestibule leads to a relatively plain interior enlivened by elaborate epitaphs and a baroque alabaster pulpit by Andreas Schlüter (1703).
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