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Brandenburg Gate
Brandenburg Gate is a former city gate and one of the main symbols of Berlin and Germany. It is located west of the city center at the intersection of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which one formerly entered Berlin. One block to the north stands the Reichstag. The gate is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees which formerly led directly to the city palace of the Prussian monarchs. It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace and built by Karl Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to 1791. The Brandenburg Gate was restored from 2000 to 2002 by the Stiftung Denkmalschutz Berlin (Berlin Monument Conservation Foundation). Today, it is considered one of Europe's most famous landmarks.
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Checkpoint Charlie
Checkpoint Charlie "Checkpoint C" was the name given by the Western Allies to the most well known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Germany and West Germany during the Cold War. The Soviet Union prompted the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961 to stem the flow of Eastern Bloc emigration westward through what had become a "loophole" in the Soviet border system, preventing escape over the city sector border from East Berlin to West Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of east and west, and — for some East Germans — a gateway to freedom. Soviet and American tanks briefly faced off at the location during the Berlin Crisis of 1961. After the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc and the reunification of Germany, the building at Checkpoint Charlie became a tourist attraction. It is now located in a museum outside Berlin.
Address: Friedrichstraße 43-45;
Telephone: (030) 253 7250;
E-mail: info@Mauer-Museum.com;
Website: www.Mauer-Museum.com;
Opening time: Daily 9am to 10pm; documentary films are screened throughout the day, with showings of the historically significant feature films 'Mit dem Wind nach Westen' daily at 5.30pm and 'Mein Kampf' daily at 7.30pm;
Admission: Adults €9.50, scholars/students €5.50 |
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Eastside Gallery
The East Side Gallery is an international memorial for freedom. It is a 1.3km long section of the Berlin Wall located near the centre of Berlin on Mühlenstraße in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. The Gallery consists of approximately 106 paintings by artists from all over the world, painted on the east side of the Berlin Wall. It is possibly the largest and everlasting open air gallery in the world. The first painting was started by Christine Mac Lean in December 1989 immediately after the fall of the wall. Paintings from Kasra Alavi, Kani Alavi, Jim Avignon, Thierry Noir, Ingeborg Blumenthal, Ignasi Blanch i Gisbert, Kim Prisu, Hervé Morlay VR and others have followed. For tourists the most interesting part of the East Side Gallery is the section close to station Ostbahnhof where all the paintings were completely restored. Also of interest is the river-side part of the East Side Gallery which shows the current art of Berlin's graffiti scene.
Address: Mühlenstraße 10243 Berlin-Friedrichshain;
E-mail: eastsidegallery@eastsidegallery.com;
Website: www.eastsidegallery.com |
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Jewish museum
The Jewish Museum Berlin (Jüdisches Museum Berlin), in Berlin, Germany, covers two millennia of German Jewish history. World-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind designed the museum, which opened to the public in 2001. The museum was one of the first buildings designed after German reunification.
Address: Lindenstraße 9-14;
Telephone: (030) 25993 300;
E-mail: info@jmberlin.de;
Website: www.juedisches-museum-berlin.de;
Transport: U1, U6 Hallesches Tor or U6, Kochstraße;
Opening time: Monday 10am to 10pm, Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 8pm;
Admission: Adults: €5, Students and Seniors €2.50, children under six free |
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Hamburger Bahnhof
Severely damaged during World War II, it found a new use in 1996 as the Museum für Gegenwart (Museum of the Present), which exhibits modern and contemporary art e.g. by Joseph Beuys, Anselm Kiefer, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Long, Andy Warhol and Cy Twombly. Between 2004 and 2010, the Museum für Gegenwart is exhibiting parts of the art collection of Friedrich Christian Flick. Due to his Flick family background, the display, which before was rejected in Zurich by the local authorities, caused various protests.
Telephone: (030) 397 8340;
E-mail: hbf@smb.spk-berlin.de;
Website: www.smb.spk-berlin.de;
Opening time: Tuesday to Friday 10am to 6pm; Saturdays 11am to 8pm; Sundays 11am to 6pm. Guided tours are conducted on Sundays at 4pm;
Admission: €8; children under 16 free. Concessions available |
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Potsdamer Platz
Potsdamer Platz is an important public square and traffic intersection in the centre of Berlin, Germany, lying about one kilometre south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), and close to the southeast corner of the Tiergarten park. It is named after the city of Potsdam, some 25 km to the south west, and marks the point where the old road from Potsdam passed through the city wall of Berlin at the Potsdam Gate. After developing within the space of little over a century from an intersection of rural thoroughfares into the most bustling traffic intersection in Europe, it was totally laid waste during World War II and then left desolate during the Cold War era when the Berlin Wall bisected its former location, but since the fall of the Wall it has risen again as a glittering new heart for the city and the most visible symbol of the new Berlin.
Website: www.potsdamerplatz.de;
Opening time: The panaroma platform is open Tuesday to Sunday 11am to 8pm; the Film Museum is open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 6pm (Thursday until 8pm) |
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LEGOLAND Discovery Centre
The newly opened LEGOLAND Discovery Centre is the first indoor LEGOLAND in the world and provides an interactive journey through a land of colour, creativity, learning and play. There is a fun factory, where real LEGO bricks are made, a 4-D cinema show, opportunities for visitors to make their own creations, Miniland Berlin, a themed ride and much more all under one roof.
Address: Sony Centre, Potsdamer Platz;
Telephone: (0)30 30 10400;
Website: www.legolanddiscoverycentre.com;
Transport: Bus M41 to Potsdamer Platz, or M48, 200, 357 to Varian-Fry-Str. U-Bahn U2, S1, S2, S25, RE3, RE4, RE5 to Potsdamer Platz station;
Opening time: Daily 10am to 5pm; closed 25 December;
Admission: €14.50 (adults), €11 (children); other concessions available |
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The Story of Berlin
This interactive history exhibition is no ordinary museum, but rather an interactive journey through Berlin’s 800-plus years, complete with light and sound shows. The Story of Berlin organizes historical eras by themes as well as by dates, and each section has plenty to keep kids busy, with touch screens, information drawers, and presentation ranging from clever to intense. Little ones will enjoy searching for the hidden Berlin bears hidden in each theme room. The “Speed’ segment has sound and video loops of transit innovations, while the section focusing on industrialization has a vibrating floor like a factory. The darkest period of Germany’s history is not ignored; a special series of rooms show the grim nature of the Third Reich in a though-provoking, conceptual fashion. Highlights in the multi-level museum include the divided living rooms that give a glimpse into life on each side of the Berlin Wall, and the still-functioning underground nuclear bomb shelter built by the city in the 1970’s. Exhibition texts are in English and German; the guided bomb shelter tour (every hour on the hour) is in German and English; other languages are available upon request.
After the fall of the Communist regime in Hungary in 1989, many of the Communist statues and monuments were immediately removed. These formed the basis for the current collection in Statue Park. On June 29, 1993, the second anniversary of the withdrawal of Russian troops from Hungarian territory, the park celebrated a ribbon cutting and grand opening as a public outdoor museum.
A life-sized copy of the tribune of the Stalin Monument in Budapest was built in the Statue Park with the broken bronze shoes on top of the pedestal in 2006. This is not an accurate copy of the original but only an artistic recreation by sculptor Ákos Eleőd.
Memento park also includes an exhibition and film theatre. The photography exhibition, called “Stalin’s Boots”, covers the 1956 revolution, the 1989-1990 political changes and Memento Park itself, with both English and Hungarian captions. In the barrack-theatre a documentary on the methods used by the secret police, titled The Life of an Agent and directed by Gábor Zsigmond Papp, is shown with English subtitles. The park also functions as a cultural and educational sight housing art projects, festivals, professional and public events. There are Retro Festivals, Film Festivals and several cultural programs.
Address: Kurfürstendamm 207-208;
Telephone: (0)30 887 20 100;
E-mail: info@story-of-berlin.de;
Website: www.story-of-berlin.de;
Transport: Subway to Uhlandstrasse or Kurfürstendamm, S-Bahn to Savignyplatz or Zoologischer Garten, or bus to Uhlandstrasse;
Opening time: Daily 10am to 8pm. Last guided tour at 6pm;
Admission: €9.80 (adults), €3.50 (children aged 6-13). Other concessions available |
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