Berlin, Germany

Berlin is the only major European capital that was divided by a wall within living memory. The psychological weight of that division – 28 years of two separate cities growing in different political and social directions 100 metres apart – is not resolved. The memorials are serious. The museums are dense. The city has been wrestling with how to remember and interpret its history for 35 years since reunification, and the result is one of the more intellectually substantive cities in Europe to visit.

It is also much more than its history. Berlin is where contemporary European art, music, and design concentrate at an intersection that other cities don’t replicate. The cheap rents that followed reunification attracted creative industries that are now thoroughly embedded. The nightlife culture – both the clubs and the surrounding neighbourhood economies – is genuinely different from other European capitals.

History Sites

Holocaust Memorial (Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas), adjacent to the Brandenburg Gate: 2,711 grey concrete stelae arranged in a grid across undulating ground, designed by Peter Eisenman. The effect is deliberately disorienting – the stelae at the centre are higher than your head, the ground falls away, orientation disappears. The underground information centre beneath has individual case histories and documents. Take the information centre seriously; the abstract memorial above is more meaningful with the specificity it provides.

Berlin Wall Memorial (Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer) on Bernauer Strasse is the best-preserved section, with the full border strip including the death strip, the watchtower, and the original eastern and western wall sections still in their original positions. The outdoor exhibition is free and substantial; the documentation centre has the most complete archive on wall history.

Checkpoint Charlie is tourist infrastructure around the most famous East-West crossing point. The nearby DDR Museum on Museum Island (entry €12.50) is more informative and less cynical.

Topography of Terror: on the former site of the SS and Gestapo headquarters, the outdoor and indoor exhibitions cover the Nazi terror apparatus with documentary rigour. Free entry.

Neighbourhoods

Kreuzberg and Neukölln are the neighbourhoods where the city’s cultural energy is most visible: street art, independent restaurants at every price point, the RAW Gelände arts complex, the Markthalle Neun food market (Thursdays, international street food). These are where Berlin residents rather than tourists concentrate.

Prenzlauer Berg east of the Mauerpark is more polished than Kreuzberg but has the Mauerpark Sunday flea market and good independent cafes.

Eating

Currywurst is the Berlin street food institution – grilled sausage with curry-spiced ketchup. Konnopke’s Imbiss under the U2 elevated railway at Schönhauser Allee has been making it since 1930 and is the specific reference point. Curry 36 in Kreuzberg is the other consistently cited version.

Berliner Weisse (wheat beer with raspberry or woodruff syrup) is the local summer drink, served in large goblets with the syrup on the side. Drink it in a beer garden in the Tiergarten.

Getting Around

The U-Bahn, S-Bahn, tram, and bus network is comprehensive and the Berliner Welcome Card (48-hour or 72-hour) covers unlimited transit plus discounted museum admission. The airport (BER, opened 2020 after a decade of delays that became a German national joke) connects to the city by S-Bahn in about 40 minutes.