Berlin Things to Do

Kreuzberg has two different faces. During the 1970s, innumerable run-down 19th century buildings around Hallesches Tor and Kottbusser Tor were pulled down to make way for modern tower blocks. The result—An anonymous concrete ju... more

A century ago, Berlin's high society used to meet in the Tiergarten for evening drinks and canapés. Winter parties took place inside the voluptuous villas which were dotted around the leafy park. A solitary remnant of this glam... more

It was Heinz Galinski who brought life back to the Jewish Community Center in the years preceding reunification. Located on Oranienburger Straße in Charlottenburg, the building stands on the site of the synagogue destroyed by t... more

Erected in 1994, this memorial commemorates all the Jews who were deported from the district of Steglitz to the concentration camps in Eastern Europe between 1942-45. The list contains the names, addresses and dates of birth of... more

When this late-classicist period building was completed in 1869, the protestant community of St.Thomas was one of the world's largest Christian communities with over 150,000 members. The church was constructed in the form of a... more

The Shell building rises high into the Berlin sky from the banks of the Landwehrkanal. Erected in 1932, this building—shaped like a curvaceous horizontal staircase—gave new meaning to the word "style". As the economy began to b... more

An intense debate has been going on for years as to whether the Royal Palace should be reconstructed, and now it finally will be. There are plans to make a hotel out of the Palace, with shops and a business center. Built in 145... more

While plans are afoot to reconstruct the ruin of Schinkel's classic Elisabethkirche on Invalidenstraße, the Franciscan Monastery Church near Alexanderplatz will not be rebuilt. It shall instead remain in its present state as a... more

During the Cold War, competition between East and West Berlin was intense and extended into all fields. When East Berlin authorities transformed Karl-Marx-Allee into a monumental, awe-inspiring boulevard in the latest architect... more

Strolling through the windswept square between the TV Tower, the Town Hall and the Palast der Republik, you may unexpectedly stumble across an exquisite baroque fountain known as the Neptunbrunnen (Neptune Fountain). Built a hu... more