Main Attractions on the Route of
"Berlin The Grand Tour" (If all are seen depends on the speed of the group.) |
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Part I | The Best of Berlin Center East |
Hackescher
Markt: major and very lively market-square between medieval city-wall and Jewish Quarter or "Barn-Quarter" respectively Old Town with art galleries |
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Rosen-Street: site of successful protest against deportation of jews during the "Third Reich" | |
Church of St. Mary: medieval church | |
"Red Town-Hall": residence of Berlin's mayor | |
Television Tower | |
Quarter of St. Nicolai with church of St. Nicolai, Berlin's first (recreation of a medieval and baroque part of the city) | |
Knoblauch-House (house of wealthy and influential Jewish family) | |
Ephraim-Palais (wonderful rococo-palais of the Jewish banker of Frederick the Great) | |
Royal Stables | |
Marx-Engels-Forum (main square of communist Berlin) | |
Protestant Dome | |
Isle of Museums, Pleasure Garden and Site of the former City-Palace, later the communist "Palace of the Republic", and in the future of the Humboldt-Forum (modern version of the Palace mainly as Museum of extra-european art) | |
"Unter den Linden" or rather "Under the Linden-Trees": Berlin's great boulevard | |
Arsenal: baroque armory resp. Museum of German History | |
New Guard (classicist monument to the victory in the Wars of Liberation against Napolen; now also monument to victims of war and dictatorships) | |
Royal Palais' (Palais' of the Crown Princes and Princesses) | |
Baroque Opera (part of the Forum Fridericianum) | |
Church of St. Hedwig (catholic dome, part of the Forum Fridericianum) | |
The Library of Frederick the Great (now Faculty of Law, part of the Forum Fridericianum) | |
Humboldt-University (former palace for a brother of Frederic the Great) | |
Equestrian Statue of Frederick the Great (part of the Forum Fridericianum) | |
Bebel-Square resp. former Opera-Square: site of the Burning of the Books during the "Third Reich" | |
Palace of Emperor William I. | |
Hausvogtei-Square (Site of former Jewish Textile Industry) and Model of Berlin's City Center before its destruction plus model of the planned Humboldt-Forum (recreation of the City-Palace) | |
Gendarmen-Market with French and German Dome plus Concert Hall (former National Theatre by Karl Friedrich Schinkel) | |
Friedrich-Street with shopping area | |
Check Point Charlie | |
"The Clou": site of Hitler's first speech in Berlin in the "Newspaper Quarter" (area of the propaganda battle in the late Weimar Republic) | |
"Topography of Terror": site of the head quarters of the SS, Gestapo, secret services and police branches of the "Third Reich" with interrogation chambers (RSHA - Imperial Main Security Office) | |
former Aviation Ministry ("Third Reich"), "House of the Ministries" (communist period, site of the protests during the uprising on July 17th 1953), resp. Ministry of Finances (now) | |
Remnant of the Wall | |
Martin-Gropius-Building (prestigious exhibition building from "the Time of the Emperor") | |
Former Prussian Parliament, Casino for fighter pilots during the "Third Reich", now Berlin's Parliament | |
Leipziger Square: huge octagonal square, dating back to baroque times, when soldiers exercised there | |
Potsdamer Square Area: Berlin's new 'high tech heart': a spectacular scenery in the former 'no man's land' close to the communist Wall | |
Marlene-Dietrich-Square, center of the "Berlinale" (Berlin's famous film festival) | |
Cultural Forum of West-Berlin with Philharmonic, State Library, Museum of Arts and Crafts, Gallery of Old Masters, New National Gallery (by famous architect Mies van der Rohe) | |
Site of "Action T4" - head quarter of Nazi-euthanasia | |
Sony Center with breath-taking tent-roof | |
Representations of the German "Länder" (federal states) | |
Site of the "Reichs-Chancellery" of the "Third Reich" and the Führer Bunker (where Hitler killed himself) | |
Holocaust Memorial | |
British, Russian, French and U.S. Embassies (former Allied Forces) | |
Brandenburg Gate with Quadriga and Square of Paris plus famous Hotel Adlon | |
Russian Honorary Memorial with T-34-tanks | |
Reichstag-Building (Parliament of the "2d Reich", now Parliament of the "Berlin Republic" with Lord Norman Foster's phantastic dome and lots of ecological technology | |
Government-Buildings including Chancellery | |
Central Station | |
Part II | The Best of Berlin Center West |
Tiergarten resp. "Animal Garden": Berlin's Central Parc (former 'hunting grounds' of the court) | |
Column of Victory, commemorating the victory over France 1870/71 and the foundation of the "2d German Empire" on the "Street of the 17th of June (uprising 1953 in communist Germany)" resp. Hitler's "East-West-Axis" in his planned "World Capital Germania" | |
Palace of Bellevue, home to the President of the Federal Republic of Germany | |
Hansa-Quarter: international building exhibition in 1957 | |
Zoo | |
Zoo Station | |
KaDeWe and Tauentzien: the famous department-store and shopping area, with sculpture representing the 4 allied occupations zones | |
Emperor William Memorial Church (ruin, commemorating the World War II) | |
Kurfürstendamm, the famous shopping and leisure boulevard of West Berlin with Hotel Kempinski and Literay Café | |
Maison de France: French cultural embassy | |
Savigny Square Area: where Berliner's enjoy their outdoor Cafés and Restaurants | |
University of the Arts | |
Technical University | |
Schloss-Street: idyllic street leading to the Palace of Charlottenburg | |
Palace of Charlottenburg with its wonderful baroque and english gardens | |
Part III | Berlin's Old Town or "Barn Quarter" |
West Harbour: Berlin's typical strangely romatic mixture of water, nature, green, town and industry | |
Oranienburger Street (THE amusement street) with the famous "New Synagogue", the Parc of Monbijou (site of a destroyed palace) and "Red Light District" | |
Jewish Cemetary | |
Hackesche Höfe: beautiful series of courtyards with shops and cultural institutions | |
Streets of the "Old Town" (17th, 18th and 19th century) with Berlin's many art galleries | |
Handwerkervereinshaus (Craftsmen's Association's House) resp. Sophiensäle (Halls of Sophie): home of one of the very first unions, site for important reunions in the history of the Left | |
Sophie-Gips-Höfe: series of courtyards with Art, Café and Sammlung Hoffmann (Collection Hoffmann of Contemporary Art) | |
August-Street: THE street of art galleries | |
Tacheles: ruinous house, famous home to a group of squatter artists | |
Chaussee-Street: site of the origin of prussian-german industry | |
Friedrich-Street: upper end with Friedrichstadt-Palast (variety theater) | |
Berliner Ensemble: one of Berlin's best theaters, for a long time directed by famous communist playwrite Berthold Brecht | |
Station Friedrich-Street with "Palace of the Tears" (check point for people from West-Germany who visited their relatives in the East) | |
Schiffbauerdamm (dike of the ship builders) at the river Spree with lots of restaurants and pubs at the riverside, most famously the "Ständige Vertretung" |