Berlin Germany | Visit Berlin | Berlin Tourism | Lonely Planet Berlin | Berlin Weather
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union. Located in northeastern Germany, it is the center of the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, which has 4.4 million residents from over 190 nations. Located in the European Plains, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes.
First documented in the 13th century, Berlin was the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918), the German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and the Third Reich (1933–1945). Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world. After World War II, the city became divided into East Berlin—the capital of East Germany—and West Berlin, a West German exclave surrounded by the Berlin Wall (1961–1989). Following German reunification in 1990, the city regained its status as the capital of Germany, hosting 147 foreign embassies.
Berlin is a world city of culture, politics, media, and science. Its economy is primarily based on the service sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, media corporations, and convention venues. Berlin also serves as a continental hub for air and rail transport, and is a popular tourist destination. Significant industries include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, biotechnology, electronics, traffic engineering, and renewable energy.
Berlin is home to renowned universities, research institutes, orchestras, museums, and celebrities, as well as host of many sporting events. Its urban settings and historical legacy have made it a popular location for international film productions. The city is well known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts, public transportation networks and a high quality of living.
Berlin Weather:
Map of Berlin:
Transport in Berlin:
Berlin has developed a highly complex transportation infrastructure providing very diverse modes of urban mobility. 979 bridges cross 197 kilometers of innercity waterways, 5,334 kilometres (3,314 mi) of roads run through Berlin, of which 73 kilometres (45 mi) are motorways. Long-distance rail lines connect Berlin with all of the major cities of Germany and with many cities in neighboring European countries. Regional rail lines provide access to the surrounding regions of Brandenburg and to the Baltic Sea.
Road Transport in Berlin:
In 2006, 1.416 million motor vehicles were registered in the city. With 416 vehicles per 1000 inhabitants (587/1000 in Germany), Berlin as a German state and as a major European city has one of the lowest numbers of cars per capita.
Autobahn links:
Berlin is linked to the rest of Germany and neighbouring countries by the country's autobahn network, including the:
- A2 to Hannover and the Ruhr area, with links to Frankfurt am Main and western Germany
- A9 to Leipzig, Nuremberg and Munich, with links to Frankfurt am Main and southern Germany
- A11 to Szczecin, with links to north-east Germany and Poland
- A12 to Frankfurt (Oder), with links to Poland
- A13 to Dresden, with links to Poland and the Czech Republic
- A24 to Hamburg, with links to north-west Germany
All of these autobahn terminate at the A10 Berliner Ring, a 196 kilometres (122 mi) long autobahn that encircles the city at some distance from the centre, and largely in the surrounding state of Brandenburg. Central Berlin is connected to the A 10 by several shorter autobahn:
- A111 to the northwest (towards the A24 and Tegel Airport)
- A113 to the southeast (towards the A12, A13 and Schönefeld Airport)
- A114 to the north (towards the A11)
- A115 to the southwest (towards the A2 and A9)
Cycling in Berlin:
Berlin is known for its highly developed bike lane system. Around 1,500,000 daily rides account for 13% of total traffic in 2008. The Senate of Berlin aims to increase the number to 18-20% of city traffic by the year 2025. Riders have access to 620 kilometres (390 mi) of bike paths including some 150 kilometres (93 mi) of mandatory bicycle paths, 190 kilometres (120 mi) of off-road bicycle routes, 60 kilometres (37 mi) of bike lanes on the roads, 70 kilometres (43 mi) of shared bus lanes which are also open to bicyclists, 100 kilometres (62 mi) of combined pedestrian/bike paths and 50 kilometres (31 mi) of marked bike lanes on sidewalks. A system of bike-sharing stations across the city cetre is being implemented by Deutsche Bahn since 2011, starting in Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte.
Water Transport in Berlin:
Berlin is linked to the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, and the River Rhine by an extensive network of rivers, lakes and canals. An equally extensive network of waterways exists within the city boundaries, providing local access and various short-cuts. The waterways accommodate a mixture of commercial traffic, sightseeing tour boats, ferries and a large fleet of private leisure boats.
The waterways of Berlin:
Berlin city centre is located on the River Spree, which runs roughly east to west across the city. The River Dahme joins the Spree at Köpenick, in the city's eastern suburbs. At Spandau the Spree joins the River Havel, which flows roughly north to south along the city's western boundary. To both east and west of the centre of Berlin, all three of these rivers flow through substantial chains of lakes. These include the Tegeler See and Großer Wannsee to the west, and the Müggelsee, Langer See, Seddinsee and Zeuthener See to the east.
The Elbe–Havel Canal links the River Havel downstream of Spandau with both the River Elbe, which flows into the North Sea at Hamburg, and with the Mittelland Canal, which stretches across Germany to a network of canals that provide a link to the River Rhine. Both the Oder–Havel and Oder–Spree canals provide routes from the Berlin area to the River Oder, which flows into the Baltic Sea near Szczecin and provides links to Poland. The Oder-Havel Canal links with the River Havel north of Spandau, whilst the Oder-Spree Canal links with the River Dahme east of Köpenick.
The most important canals within Berlin run roughly east to west between the rivers Spree and Havel. The canal system to the north of the Spree begins with the Berlin-Spandau Ship Canal, which runs from the Spree near the Hauptbahnhof to the River Havel above Spandau. The Westhafen Canal and the Charlottenburg Canal, both near Charlottenburg, provide further connections between the Berlin-Spandau Ship Canal and the River Spree.
The main canal to the south of the Spree is the Teltow Canal, which runs from the Dahme south of Köpenick through the southern part of Berlin to an arm of the Havel just east of Potsdam. A shorter canal, the Landwehr Canal, parallels the Spree through the centre of Berlin. It begins at the Spree between Treptow and Kreuzberg and rejoins the Spree in Charlottenburg. The Neukölln Ship Canal connects the Landwehr Canal with the Teltow Canal; while the Britz Canal connects the Teltow Canal with the Spree at Baumschulenweg.
Whilst not within Berlin, the existence of the city and its partition led to the construction of the Havel Canal in 1951-2. This canal provides an alternative route between Hennigsdorf and Paretz, both then in East Germany, and avoids the stretch of the River Havel that was under the political control of West Berlin.
Waterborn Traffic in Berlin Germany:
Berlin's largest port is the Westhafen ("west port"), in Moabit (Mitte), with an area of 173,000 m² (42.75 acres). It lies at the intersection of the Berlin-Spandau Ship Canal and the Westhafen Canal. It handles the shipping of grain and pieced and heavy goods. The Südhafen ("south port"), which actually lies along the Havel in Spandau, in far western Berlin, covers an area of about 103,000 m² (25.5 acres) and also handles the shipping of pieced and heavy goods. The Osthafen ("east port"), with an area of 57,500 m² (14.2 acres), lies along the Spree in Friedrichshain. The Hafen Neukölln, with only 19,000 m² (4.7 acres), is located along the Neuköllner Ship Canal in Neukölln. It handles the shipping of building materials.
Sightseeing boats operate on the central section of the River Spree and its adjoining waterways on a frequent basis. Common tours operated include short tours on the River Spree in the city centre, and a three hour circuit of the city centre via the River Spree and the Landwehr Canal. Other sightseeing boats operate on the various lakes to the east and west of Berlin.
Berlin Bus:
Berlin has a network of 149 daytime bus routes serving 2634 bus stops and with a total route length of 1,675 kilometres (1,041 mi). All these services are operated by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) and use the common public transport tariff run by the Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (VBB).
Of the BVG-operated bus routes, 17 are designated as part of the MetroNetz, which provides a high frequency service in areas poorly served by the U-Bahn and S-Bahn. Like the MetroTram tram routes, these MetroBus routes can be recognised by an M prefix to their route number. A further 13 BVG-operated bus routes are express routes with an X prefix to their route number.
At nighttime, Berlin is served by a night bus network of 63 bus routes serving 1508 stops and a total route length of 795 kilometres (494 mi). One night bus runs parallel to each U-Bahn line during the weektime closing hours. Most of the MetroNetz bus and tram routes operate 24 hours a day, and form part of both the day and night networks. Again services are operated by BVG and use the VBB tariff.
BVG bus service is provided by a fleet of 1349 buses, of which no fewer than 407 are double-decker buses. Whilst such buses are common in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, their use elsewhere in Europe is extremely uncommon.
Ferry transport in Berlin:
Berlin has an extensive network of waterways within its city boundaries, including the Havel, Spree and Dahme rivers, and many linked lakes and canals. These are crossed by six passenger ferry routes that are operated by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) and use the common public transport tariff managed by the Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (VBB).
There are also a number of other ferry routes that are not managed by BVG, and do not form part of the VBB common tariff. These include passenger and car ferries serving islands within Berlin's lakes, as well as a car ferry across the River Havel. The adjacent city of Potsdam operates a ferry that is within the VBB common tariff.
Public Transport in Berlin:
Berlin's local public transport network consists of several integrated systems. These include the U-Bahn and S-Bahn urban rail systems, regional railway services, a tramway system, a bus network and a number of ferry services. There are a large number of common interchange stations between the different modes.
All these services form part of the common public transport tariff run by the Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (VBB). This covers the city of Berlin and approximately 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) beyond the city boundaries. The area is split into three zones. Zone A is the central parts of the city (inside the Ringbahn), and zone B is the outer parts of Berlin City. Zone C covers an area beyond the city boundaries.
Ticket fares have a slight price difference between these three zones. For instance in June 2010, a one-day ticket for zone A+B was priced at €6.10, a zone B+C one-day travel ticket was €6.30, and for all three zones A+B+C, the price was €6.50.
Berlin U-Bahn:
The U-Bahn is an urban rapid transit rail system, and is entirely within the city borders. Whilst the majority of the system is underground, significant sections operate on elevated tracks or at street level. It is operated by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), the city owned municipal transport operator, and uses the common public transport tariff managed by the Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (VBB).
The U-Bahn now comprises nine lines with 173 stations and a total length of 147 kilometres (91.3 mi). Trains run every two to five minutes during peak hours, every five minutes for the rest of the day and every ten minutes in the evening and on Sunday. They travel 132 million km (83 million mi), carrying 400 million passengers, over the year.
The first line of the U-Bahn opened in 1902, and construction has continued spasmodically since then, with the most recent line opening in 2009. The first four lines to be built were built with a narrower profile and a slightly different electrification method to the later lines. This is most noticeably seen in the narrower trains on the earlier lines, and rolling stock cannot easily be interchanged between the two groups of lines.
During the division of the city, the U-Bahn system was itself partitioned. One line – the U5 – was entirely within East Berlin, and another – the U2 – was operated in two sections, one by each of the two sides. The remaining lines were nominally within West Berlin, although two of them passed under East Berlin without stopping, except at the Friedrichstraße station, which served as a transfer point and border crossing.
Whilst the city remained partitioned, there was major expansion of the U-Bahn in the west, driven both by the availability of funds from commercially successful West Germany and by the desire to provide alternatives to the East German run S-Bahn. Since reunification, expansion has been less fast.
Berlin S-Bahn:
The S-Bahn has aspects of both rapid transit and commuter rail operation. Historically it developed from commuter services provided by main line railway operators, but now runs on tracks that are separate from, but often parallel to, other trains. Most of the system is operated at ground level, but there are significant sections of elevated tracks and tunnels. It has a somewhat longer average distance between stations than the U-Bahn, and it also serves some of the closer suburbs in Brandenburg. It is operated by a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, the national rail operator, and uses the common public transport tariff managed by the Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (VBB).
The S-Bahn now comprises 15 routes with 166 stations and a total length of 331 kilometres (205.7 mi). Over much of the network more than one route provides service over the same tracks, and these routes all feed into one of three core lines: a central, elevated east-west line (the Stadtbahn), a central, mostly underground north-south line (the Nord-Süd-Tunnel), and a circular, mostly elevated line (the Ringbahn).
The Stadtbahn carries both S-Bahn trains and regional and long-distance trains, on two separate pairs of tracks. This line passes through most of the city's long-distance and regional train stations, including Berlin Zoologischer Garten, Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Friedrichstraße, Alexanderplatz, and Berlin Ostbahnhof. The Ringbahn forms a circle around the inner city and crosses the Stadtbahn at Westkreuz ("west crossing") and Ostkreuz ("east crossing"). The Nord-Süd-Tunnel intesects the Stadtbahn at Friedrichstraße and the Ringbahn at Südkreuz and Gesundbrunnen.
During the East German era the S-Bahn was run by the communist state, initially even in West Berlin. As a result, and as a protest against the building of the Berlin Wall, the S-Bahn was boycotted by West Berliners, and much of the system in West Berlin eventually closed through lack of traffic. In 1984 the BVG took over operation of the West Berlin section of the S-Bahn. After reunification, the two halves of the S-Bahn were reunited under the ownership of the Deutsche Bahn.
Regional Trains in Berlin:
Berlin is the centre of a system of regional trains operated by Deutsche Bahn, which operate to destinations within the Berlin-Brandeburg suburban area beyond the range of the S-Bahn. There are two kinds of regional trains, the stopping Regionalbahn (RB) and the faster Regional-Express (RE).
Unlike the S-Bahn, the network of regional trains does not have its own segregated tracks, but rather shares tracks with longer distance passenger and freight services. Within Berlin, regional services stop less frequently than S-Bahn services, especially where they run parallel to U-Bahn or S-Bahn lines.
Regional trains often continue outside the Berlin-Brandenburg suburban area, but within that suburban area they use the common public transport tariff managed by the Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (VBB). This covers the city of Berlin and approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) beyond the city boundaries. These tickets are not valid on DB InterCity trains, Intercity-Express trains and international trains, even within Berlin.
Berlin tram:
Berlin has a tram network comprising 22 tram lines serving 377 tram stops and measuring 293.78 kilometres (182.55 mi) in length. All these services are operated by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) and use the common public transport tariff run by the Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (VBB).
Of the 22 BVG-operated tram routes, nine are designated as part of the MetroNetz, which provide a high frequency service in areas poorly served by the U-Bahn and S-Bahn. These MetroTram tram lines are recognisable by an M prefix to their route number, and are the only tram routes to operate 24 hours a day.
Berlin's first horse tram opened in 1865, running from Brandenburger Tor to Charlottenburg. In 1881, the world's first electric tramway was opened by Werner von Siemens in Groß-Lichterfelde, now part of Berlin. By 1910, the horse trams had been entirely replaced by electric trams.
Prior to the division of Berlin, tram lines existed throughout the city, but all the tram lines in the former West Berlin had been replaced by bus or U-Bahn services by 1967. However East Berlin retained its tram lines, and the current network is still predominantly in that area, although there have been a few extensions back across the old border.
Besides the BVG tram routes, two further tram lines (numbered 87 and 88) cross the Berlin city boundary in order to connect suburban S-Bahn stations within the city to the Brandenburg towns of Woltersdorf, Schöneiche and Rüdersdorf. A similar line operates within the nearby town of Strausberg, whilst the adjacent city of Potsdam has its own sizable tram network. Whilst none of these lines is operated by the BVG, they all use the VBB common tariff.
Flights to Berlin:
Berlin is served by two commercial airports. Tegel Airport (TXL) is the largest and located within Berlin, while smaller Schönefeld Airport (SXF) is situated just outside of Berlin, to the south-west. Combined, they handled 22,3 million passengers in 2010. In 2011, 88 airlines served 164 destinations in 54 countries from Berlin airports, with 28 non-European connections. Tegel Airport is scheduled to close in 2012 and Schönefeld Airport will be expanded and renamed Berlin Brandenburg Airport, handling all commercial flights to and from Berlin, in 2012.
A third, Tempelhof Airport, formerly handled short distance and commuter flights. It was closed at the end of October 2008. A referendum opposing the closure could not gather the required quorum. Closure of Tegel and Tempelhof airports is a legal requirement for the opening of the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport south of the Schönefeld Airport site, in order to alleviate noise pollution throughout the city.
Early Aviation:
The first airport in Berlin was Johannisthal Air Field which opened on 26 September 1909. Followed shortly after by Staaken Airport around 1915, known for its two zeppelin halls and Deutsche Luft Hansa base. Then came Tempelhof Airport in 1923 and Gatow Air Field in 1934. Tegel Airport was built during the Berlin Blockade in 1948.
Tempelhof was the first airport in the world with regular passenger flights, opening in 1923 with flights to Königsberg (now Kaliningrad). Deutsche Luft Hansa started its operations from the airport in 1926, while zeppelins also frequented the airport. The airport expanded rapidly, becoming one of the largest airports in the world in the 1930s, fittingly provided with enormous halls, which are still visible today, unfinished though they may be. Tempelhof also had another first: it was the first airport to feature its own underground station.
After 1945:
Following World War II, Tempelhof was used as a U.S. Air Force base, while the Soviet air force relocated to Schönefeld, outside Berlin, during 1946. The Soviets had reached Tempelhof before the Western Allies. Gatow Air Field, which was taken over by the RAF in July 1945, was partially outside Berlin. At the Potsdam Conference it was then decided to exchange the western half of Staaken, including Staaken Airport, for the needed territory in Gatow. Staaken Airport was then used by the Soviet air force for some time to come.
In April 1948, as a result of growing tension between the Soviet and the Western Allied occupying powers, West Berlin was closed off from the surrounding Soviet sector. Supplies were flown in for over a year; enormous numbers of transport planes flew in and out of Berlin every day of this period. The capacity of the airports then in the three Western sectors was not large enough; to relieve pressure on Gatow and Tempelhof, Tegel Airport was built in the French sector. It was constructed by a labour force mainly consisting of Berlin women, under the supervision of French engineers, within just 90 days. It featured a 2400 m runway - the longest in Europe at the time. Because of special Allied bylaws, Lufthansa was not allowed to use Tegel until after German reunification.
Tempelhof was returned to civil administration in 1951, Schönefeld in 1954 and Tegel in 1960. Gatow Airport remained a military airfield, used by the RAF until 1994 and closed in 1995. Tegel, the newest airport, became the main civilian airport for West Berlin, while Schönefeld served the population of East Berlin. Since the smaller airport at Tempelhof is surrounded by urban development, it could not expand.
Berlin Airports / Berlin Brandenburg Airport:
Following German reunification in 1990, the inefficiency of operating three separate airports became increasingly problematic. Berlin's airport authority (the Berliner Flughafen GmbH, a subsidiary of the Flughafen Berlin-Schönefeld GmbH) will transfer all of Berlin's air traffic to a greatly expanded airport at Schönefeld on 3 June 2012, to be renamed Berlin Brandenburg Airport. One airport would be more efficient and would decrease the noise pollution. The existing airport in Schönefeld will be greatly expanded to the south from its current state to allow this. In fact, the new airport will only have the current southern runway (the new designated northern runway) in common with the existing airport.
Berlin Brandenburg Airport will be Germany's third busiest airport upon opening on 3 June 2012, as Berlin's airports served over 22.3 million passengers in 2010. Frankfurt Airport, which served 54 million passengers in 2007, is the country's busiest airport, followed by Munich Airport, which served 34 million passengers in 2007.
Visit Berlin:
Here are all of the attractions in Berlin you could visit for FREE with a Berlin Pass:
- Alliierten Museum
- Alte National Gallery
- Altes Museum
- Anne Frank Centre
- Anti Kriegs Museum
- Art Forum at Berliner Vol
- Bauhaus Archive
- Berggruen Museum
- Berlin Botanical Museum
- Berlin Bus Tour
- Berlin River Cruise
- Berliner Dom
- Berlinische Gallery
- Bode Museum
- Brücke Museum
- Checkpoint Charlie Museum
- Childhood and Youth Colle
- Church of St. Nicholas
- Communication Museum
- Dahlem Museum
- Düppel Museum Village
- Deutscher Dom
- Egyptian Museum Berlin
- Ephraim Palais Berlin
- Ethnological Museum
- Fat Tire Bike Tours
- Gemalde Gallery
- Georg Kolbe Museum
- German Guggenheim
- German Technology Museum
- Hamburger Bahnhof
- Insider Walking Tours
- Jewish Museum Berlin
- Kunstbibliothek
- Labyrinth Children’s Mu
- MACHmit! Museum
- Märkisches Museum
- Medical History Museum
- Middle Eastern Museum
- Museum of Asian Art
- Museum of Decorative Arts
- Museum of Islamic Art
- Museum of Pre-History and
- Musical Instrument Museum
- Natural History Museum
- Neue National Gallery
- Neues Museum
- Pergamon Museum
- Photography Museum
- Scharf-Gerstenberg Collec
- Schwules Museum
Berlin Zoo:
Berlin has two zoos and an aquarium. The Berlin Zoo in the west is the historic zoo that has been a listed company since its foundation. It's an oasis in the city and very popular with families and schools.
Berlin Zoological Garden:
The Berlin Zoo is the most visited zoo in Europe with approximately 3.0 million annual visitors from all over the world. It is open all year long and can easily be reached by public transportation. The Berlin Zoologischer Garten railway station (also simply known as Zoo) is one of Berlin's most important stations. Several modes of transport such as U-Bahn, S-Bahn and buses are interlinked here. Visitors can either enter the zoo through the exotically designed Elephant Gate beside the aquarium on Budapester Straße or through the Lion Gate on Hardenbergplatz.
A breeding function of the zoo is its program maintaining the studbooks for black and Indian rhinoceroses and gaurs. The populations of rare deer and pigs are part of several captive breeding projects. Berlin Zoo supports conservationists e.g. in Madagascar and as a partner of the Stiftung Artenschutz.
Almost all of the animals are housed in enclosures that are specially designed to recreate their natural habitat.
The carnivore house displays all big cats and many rare small predators, such as ring-tailed mongooses and narrow-striped mongooses from Madagascar. In the basement, visitors are invited to a view into the world of nocturnal animals.
The bird house presents a walk-through aviary and offers a broad variety of forms, including several regularly breeding species of hornbills and many parrots. Numerous big aviaries show waders, herons and many other species. The Berlin zoo is one of the few zoos to exhibit Tuatara and Luzon Tarictic Hornbills.
Aquarium:
The Aquarium, which was built in 1913 as part of the Zoologischer Garten complex. Since its opening the Zoo-Aquarium has been ranked among the public aquariums with the world’s greatest biodiversity. On either a separate or joint ticket it can be visited with the zoo.
Over 9 000 animals are presented on three storeys. It contains a famous jellyfish breeding, tropical and native fishes, crocodiles and broad variety of insects. In addition to its 250 fish tanks, the Aquarium houses a wide variety of amphibians and reptiles including the Komodo dragon.
The shark tank presents the blacktip reef shark and one sand tiger shark. The chondrichthians, or cartilaginous fishes, are an ancient class of animal that includes both the sharks and the rays.
With a total capacity of 25,000 litres twelve basins present different sections through the world of corals. The largest of these basins is the 11 m³ Great Coral Basin with its reproduction lagoon.
Tierpark Berlin:
The Tierpark Berlin is one of the two zoos in Berlin, Germany. It is located in Friedrichsfelde, on the former grounds of Friedrichsfelde Palace, which is situated within the zoo. As of 31 December 2008 (2008 -12-31)[update], the zoo houses 7,699 animals from 950 species, in an area of 160 hectares (400 acres).
Tierpark Berlin is a member of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA).
Berlin Museums and Galleries:
Berlin is home to 153 museums. The ensemble on the Museum Island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is situated in the northern part of the Spree Island between the Spree and the Kupfergraben. As early as 1841 it was designated a "district dedicated to art and antiquities" by a royal decree. Subsequently, the Altes Museum (Old Museum) in the Lustgarten displaying the bust of Queen Nefertiti, the Neues Museum (New Museum), Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery), Pergamon Museum, and Bode Museum were built there. While these buildings once housed distinct collections, the names of the buildings no longer necessarily correspond to the names of their collections.
Apart from the Museum Island, there are many additional museums in the city. The Gemäldegalerie (Painting Gallery) focuses on the paintings of the "old masters" from the 13th to the 18th centuries, while the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery, built by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) specializes in 20th century European painting. The Hamburger Bahnhof, located in Moabit, exhibits a major collection of modern and contemporary art. In spring 2006, the expanded Deutsches Historisches Museum re-opened in the Zeughaus with an overview of German history through the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The Bauhaus Archive is an architecture museum.
The Jewish Museum has a standing exhibition on two millennia of German-Jewish history. The German Museum of Technology in Kreuzberg has a large collection of historical technical artifacts. The Museum für Naturkunde exhibits natural history near Berlin Hauptbahnhof. It has the largest mounted dinosaur in the world (a brachiosaurus), and a preserved specimen of the early bird Archaeopteryx.
In Dahlem, there are several museums of world art and culture, such as the Museum of Asian Art, the Ethnological Museum, the Museum of European Cultures, as well as the Allied Museum (a museum of the Cold War) and the Brücke Museum (an art museum). In Lichtenberg, on the grounds of the former East German Ministry for State Security (Stasi), is the Stasi Museum. The site of Checkpoint Charlie, one of the most renowned crossing points of the Berlin Wall, is still preserved and also has a museum, a private venture which exhibits comprehensive documentation of detailed plans and strategies devised by people who tried to flee from the East. The Beate Uhse Erotic Museum near Zoo Station claims to be the world's largest erotic museum.
Museum Island:
Museum Island (German: Museumsinsel) is the name of the northern half of an island in the Spree river in the central Mitte district of Berlin, Germany, the site of the old city of Cölln. It is so called for the complex of five internationally significant museums, all part of the Berlin State Museums, that occupy the island's northern part:
- The Altes Museum (Old Museum) completed on the orders of Karl Friedrich Schinkel in 1830.
- The Neues Museum (New Museum) finished in 1859 according to plans by Friedrich August Stüler, a student of Schinkel. Destroyed in World War II, it was rebuilt under the direction of David Chipperfield for the Egyptian Museum of Berlin and re-opened in 2009.
- The Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) completed in 1876, also according to designs by Friedrich August Stüler, to host a collection of 19th century art donated by banker Joachim H. W. Wagener
- The Bode Museum on the island's northern tip, opened in 1904 and then called Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum. It exhibits the sculpture collections and late Antique and Byzantine art.
- The Pergamon Museum, the final museum of the complex, constructed in 1930. It contains multiple reconstructed immense and historically significant buildings such as the Pergamon Altar and the Ishtar Gate of Babylon.
In 1999, the museum complex was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.
Deutsches Historisches Museum
The German Historical Museum (Deutsches Historisches Museum), DHM for short, is a museum in Berlin devoted to German history and defines itself as a place of enlightenment and understanding of the shared history of Germans and Europeans.
The Museum is located in the Zeughaus (armoury) on the avenue Unter den Linden as well as in the adjacent Exhibition Hall designed by I. M. Pei.
The German Historical Museum is under the legal form of a foundation registered by the Federal Republic of Germany. Its highest-ranking body is the Board of Trustees (Kuratorium) with representatives of the Federal Government, the German Bundestag (Parliament) and the governments of the German Länder, or states.
Jüdisches Museum Berlin
The Jewish Museum Berlin (Jüdisches Museum Berlin), in Berlin, Germany, covers two millennia of German Jewish history. It consists of two buildings. One is the old Kollegienhaus, a former courthouse, built in the 18th century. The other, a new addition specifically built for the museum, designed by world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind. This was one of the first buildings in Berlin designed after German reunification. The museum opened to the public in 2001.
Princeton professor W. Michael Blumenthal, who was born near Berlin and was later President Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of the Treasury, has been the director of the museum since December 1997.
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
The Gemäldegalerie is an art museum in Berlin, Germany. It holds one of the world's leading collections of European art from the 13th to the 18th centuries. It is located on Kulturforum west of Potsdamer Platz. Its collection includes masterpieces from such artists as Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt and Johannes Vermeer. It was first opened in 1830, and was rebuilt in 1998.
Neue Nationalgalerie:
Neue Nationalgalerie at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the early 20th century. It is part of the Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. The museum building and its sculpture gardens were designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and opened in 1968.
Museum für Naturkunde:
The Museum für Naturkunde, officially the Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz Research Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity at the Humboldt University Berlin) or Naturkundemuseum (Natural History Museum), occasionally known as the Humboldt Museum, is a natural history museum in Berlin, Germany. Usually the museum's name is abbreviated MFN, but other shorts are common in the older literature, too. The museum houses a massive collection of more than 30 million zoological, paleontological, and mineralogical specimens, including more than ten thousand type specimens. It is most famous for two spectacular exhibits: the largest mounted dinosaur in the world, and the most exquisitely preserved specimen of the earliest known bird, Archaeopteryx.
This is the largest museum of natural history in Germany, and was established in 1810. Its collections contain objects from three major fields, paleontology, mineralogy, and zoology. The museum's mineral collections date back as early as to the Prussian Academy in 1700. Significant zoological specimens were recovered for example by the German deep-sea Valdiva expedition (1898–99), by the German Southpolar Expedition (1901–03), and by the German Sunda Expedition (1929–31). Expeditions to fossil beds in Tendaguru in former Deutsch Ostafrika (today Tanzania) unearthed rich paleontological treasures. The collections are so extensive that less than 1 in 5000 specimens is actually exhibited, and they attract researchers from around the world.
Additional exhibits include a mineral collection representing 75% of the minerals in the world, a large meteor collection, the largest piece of amber in the world; exhibits of the now-extinct quagga and tasmanian tiger, and "Bobby" the gorilla, a Berlin Zoo celebrity from the 1920s and 1930s.
Mauermuseum at Checkpoint Charlie:
This museum is situated at the most famous historical checkpoint between the two Berlins.Museum Europäischer Kulturen:
The Museum of European Cultures is located in the Dahlem neighborhood of the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Berlin, Germany.The museum is located in the same building together with the Ethnological Museum of Berlin and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst.
The official webpage warns that:
Due to renovations, the exhibition rooms of the Museum of European Cultures will be closed to the public from 6 July 2009 to June 2011.
Ethnologisches Museum Berlin:
The Ethnological Museum in Berlin is one of the largest ethnological museums in the world. It houses half a million pre-industrial objects, acquired primarily from the German voyages of exploration and colonialization of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is famous for its reconstructed houses from around the world, its boats, and its many Benin bronzes.The museum is located in the Dahlem neighborhood of the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Berlin. It shares a building with the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, and the Museum Europäischer Kulturen. It is one of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (National Museums in Berlin).
The museum includes one of the first ethnomusicology collections of sound recordings (the Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv), a film archive, a children's museum, and a museum for the blind.
Topography of Terror:
This open-air museum documents the terror applied by the Nazi regime. It consists of excavated prison cells located directly under a remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall.
DDR Museum
The DDR Museum is an interactive museum in the centre of Berlin. The museum is located in the former governmental district of East Germany, right on the river Spree, opposite the Berlin Cathedral. The museum is the 11th most visited museum in Berlin.
Its exhibition shows the daily life in East Germany (known in German as the Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR) in a direct "hands-on" way. For example, a covert listening device ("bug") gives visitors the sense of being "under surveillance".
The museum was opened on July 15, 2006, as a private museum. The private funding is unusual in Germany, because German museums are normally funded by the state. The museum met some opposition from state-owned museums, who considered possibly "suspect" a private museum and concerned that the museum could be used as an argument to question public funding to museums in general.
In 2008, the DDR Museum was nominated for the European Museum of the Year Award.
Musikinstrumenten-Museum Berlin:
The Berlin Musical Instrument Museum (German: Musikinstrumenten-Museum Berlin) is located at the Kulturforum on Tiergartenstraße. The museum contains a collection of over 3,500 musical instruments from the 16th century onward and is one of the largest and most representative musical instrument collections in Germany.
The museum was founded in 1888 as a collection of ancient musical instruments by Philipp Spitta and Joseph Joachim from at the Royal Academy of Music in Berlin. The first exhibits were from the Applied Arts Museum. Today the museum is part of the State Institute for Music Research, and is thus part of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Since 1984, the museum has been located in a Edgar Wisniewski-designed building at the Kemper Platz, next to the Berlin Philharmonic at the Cultural Forum in Berlin. There are about 800 exhibits presented in a permanent exhibition and those that are still playable are played regularly.
Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charité:
The Berlin Medical Historical Museum is an institution of the Charité - University Medicine Berlin.
It is the successor of Rudolf Virchow's Pathological Museum and is located in the former Museum Building of the Pathological Institute on the traditional grounds of the Charité (Campus Mitte). The permanent collection currently shows some 750 objects comprising pathological-anatomical wet and dry specimens as well as models, and graphics.
Ramones Museum Berlin .
The Ramones Museum Berlin pays tribute to the Punk band The Ramones. It displays more than 300 unique and original Ramones memorabilia.
Berlinische Galerie:
The Berlinische Galerie is a museum of modern art, photography and architecture in Berlin. It is located in Kreuzberg, on Alte Jakobstraße, not far from the Jewish Museum.
Story of Berlin
Kurfürstendamm 207-208i, close to the Uhlandstraße metro, the last stop on the U1. Museum in the centre of a mall. In addition to the history (including the World Wars), culture, transportation, architecture and an exhibit of life in the city since medieval times, it is unique to feature an authentic cold-war era bunker. The 20 minute tour is included in the cost of the entrance ticket, and is at the top of each hour, alternating in German and English.
Berlin Shopping:
Berlin is unique for shopping. You will find large department stores, funky boutiques, expensive designer stores, and undiscovered trends. Big advantage: Prices in Berlin are very moderate compared to other European cities!
Galeries Lafayette , the sole foreign outlet of the famous Parisian Galeries Lafayette, and one of the most distinguished addresses for international fashion and French specialties
Potsdamer Platz Arkaden , offering arcades on three floors and more than 100 businesses, ranging from clothing and accessories to electronic products and culinary delights
Quartier 206 , renowned as one of the most beautiful shopping destinations in Europe, featuring cosmopolitan architecture with Art Deco details of glass and black-and-white marble
Kadewe - Kaufhaus des Westens , featuring a shopping area of 60,000 square meters, the largest department store on mainland Europe offers a varied range of international designer labels
Friedrichstrasse , showcasing luxury products from famous designers and manufacturers, including the fashion house Galeries Lafayette
Kurfürstendamm , a fashionable thoroughfare par excellence, distinguished by luxury brands, specialized shops, and trendy boutiques
Alexanderplatz, the tram has come back to the Alex! Historical buildings have been renovated, a modern multiplex-cinema has arrived, and due to the modification of Galeria Kaufhof, several new shops have sprung up around the Alexanderplatz, making this historic area a sightseeing and shopping paradise.
Alexa Shopping Centre, is a themed shopping and leisure center. The design reflects a modern interpretation of the carefree era of Alexanderplatz, supported by Art Deco elements of the 1920s. ALEXA is an experience with an exciting design and numerous stores, offering a special shopping experience. Inside the "Red Giant,” there are more than 180 shops and a food court complete with 17 restaurants, making ALEXA one of the largest shopping centers in Berlin.
Kastanienallee, is one of the trendiest areas in Berlin. Many lovely cafes, bars, restaurants, boutiques, second-hand shops and galleries are on offer. The Kastanienallee is one of the oldest streets in the Prenzlauer Berg and is named after the chestnut tree-lined streets. At the end of the Oderbergerstr is the famous Mauerpark, one of the most relaxing places in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg. A must see area for first time Berlin visitors.
Berlin Nightlife and Festivals:
Berlin's nightlife is one of the most diverse and vibrant of its kind in Europe. Throughout the 1990s, people in their twenties from many countries, particularly those in Eastern and Central Europe, made Berlin's club scene the premier nightlife destination of Europe. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, many historic buildings in Mitte, the former city center of East Berlin, were illegally occupied and re-built by young squatters and became a fertile ground for underground and counterculture gatherings. Mitte and surrounding boroughs are also home to many nightclubs, including Kunst Haus Tacheles, techno clubs Tresor, WMF, Ufo, E-Werk, KitKatClub and Berghain. The techno-music club, Linientreu, near the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, has been in business since the late 1980s. The LaBelle discothèque in Friedenau became widely known as the location of the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing. Berlin is notable for the length of its parties. Clubs are not required to close at a fixed time on the weekends, and many parties last well into the morning, or all weekend. Berghain features the Panorama Bar, so named because the bar opens its shades at daybreak, allowing party-goers a panorama view of Berlin after dancing through the night.
The SO36 in Kreuzberg originally focused largely on punk music, but today has become a popular venue for many dances and parties. SOUND, located from 1971 to 1988 in Tiergarten and today in Charlottenburg, gained notoriety in the late 1970s for its popularity with heroin users and other drug addicts as described in Christiane F.'s book Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo.
The Karneval der Kulturen, a multi-ethnic street parade celebrated every Pentecost weekend, and the Christopher Street Day are both supported by the city's government. Berlin is also well known for the cultural festival, Berliner Festspiele, which include the jazz festival JazzFest Berlin. Several technology and media art festivals and conferences are held in the city, including Transmediale and Chaos Communication Congress.
Gay Berlin:
Berlin has a long history of gay culture and influence on popular entertainment, and according to some authors, in the 1920s the city was the Gay Capital of Europe. Today, the city has a huge number of gay clubs and festivals, such as Easter fetish week (Easter in Berlin), Christopher Street Day (Berlin Pride)—central Europe's largest gay-lesbian pride event celebrated on the last weekend of June—Folsom Europe and Hustlaball. Berlin is also leading Europe in the number of fetish clubs. "Easter in Berlin" and "Folsom Europe Berlin" are the biggest gay fetish festivals in Europe. Annual gay highlights in Berlin are also the gay and lesbian street festival in Berlin-Schöneberg (Lesbisch-schwules Stadtfest) and Kreuzberg Pride in June. The largest gay areas in Berlin are located in Schöneberg close to Nollendorfplatz and in Prenzlauer Berg at the Schönhauser Allee subway station.
Blue Man Group Berlin:
Blue Man Group is an organization founded by Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton. The organization produces theatrical shows and concerts featuring popular music, comedy and multimedia; recorded music and scores for film and television; television appearances for shows such as The Tonight Show, Las Vegas, Scrubs, FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman, and Arrested Development; and a children's museum exhibit ("Making Waves"). All of the organization's appearances star a trio of performers called Blue Men, who all wear a blue "skin". The original founding Blue Men still perform, but they have since then taken on administrative roles in the company. Because of the success of Blue Man Group, a parent company called Blue Man Productions was created, which produces all the Blue Man Group shows in the world. It currently has a staff of over 50 people.
Berlin Performing Arts:
Berlin is home to more than 50 theaters. The Deutsches Theater in Mitte was built in 1849–50 and has operated continuously since then, except for a one-year break (1944–45) due to the Second World War. The Volksbühne at Rosa Luxemburg Platz was built in 1913–14, though the company had been founded in 1890. The Berliner Ensemble, famous for performing the works of Bertolt Brecht, was established in 1949, not far from the Deutsches Theater. The Schaubühne was founded in 1962 in a building in Kreuzberg, but in 1981 moved to the building of the former Universum Cinema on Kurfürstendamm.
Berlin has three major opera houses: the Deutsche Oper, the Berlin State Opera, and the Komische Oper. The Berlin State Opera on Unter den Linden opened in 1742 and is the oldest of the three. Its current musical director is Daniel Barenboim. The Komische Oper has traditionally specialized in operettas and is located at Unter den Linden as well. The Deutsche Oper opened in 1912 in Charlottenburg. During the division of the city from 1961 to 1989 it was the only major opera house in West Berlin.
There are seven symphony orchestras in Berlin. The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the preeminent orchestras in the world; it is housed in the Berliner Philharmonie near Potsdamer Platz on a street named for the orchestra's longest-serving conductor, Herbert von Karajan. The current principal conductor is Simon Rattle. The Konzerthausorchester Berlin was founded in 1952 as the orchestra for East Berlin, since the Philharmonic was based in West Berlin. Its current principal conductor is Lothar Zagrosek. The Haus der Kulturen der Welt presents various exhibitions dealing with intercultural issues and stages world music and conferences.
German Food:
German Food is a style of cooking derived from the nation of Germany. It has evolved as a national cuisine through centuries of social and political change with variations from region to region. The southern regions of Germany, including Bavaria and neighbouring Swabia, share many dishes. Furthermore, across the border in Austria one will find many similar dishes. However, ingredients and dishes vary by province. There are many significant regional dishes that have become both national and regional. Many dishes that were once regional, however, have proliferated in different variations across the country into the present day.
Berlin Food:
Berlin is home to a diverse gastronomy scene reflecting the immigrant history of the city. Twelve restaurants in Berlin have been included into the Michelin guide, which ranks the city at the top for the number of its restaurants having this distinction in Germany.
Many local foods originated from north-German culinary traditions and include rustic and hearty dishes with pork, goose, fish, peas, beans, cucumbers or potatoes.
Typical Berliner fares include Currywurst, invented in 1949, Eisbein, the Berliner known as a Pfannkuchen, and Leber Berliner Art (Berlin-style liver).
Turkish and Arab immigrant workers brought their culinary traditions to the city; for example, the döner kebab, falafel and lahmacun, which have become common fast-food staples. The modern fast-food version of the döner was invented in Berlin in 1971.
Education in Berlin Germany:
Berlin has 878 schools that teach 340,658 children in 13,727 classes and 56,787 trainees in businesses and elsewhere. The city has a six-year primary education program. After completing primary school, students progress to the Sekundarschule (a comprehensive school) or Gymnasium (college preparatory school). Berlin has a special bilingual school program embedded in the "Europaschule". At participating schools, children are taught the curriculum in German and also in a foreign language, starting in primary school and continuing in high school. Throughout nearly all boroughs, nine major European languages can be chosen as foreign languages in 29 schools.
The Französisches Gymnasium Berlin, which was founded in 1689 to teach the children of Huguenot refugees, offers (German/French) instruction. The John F. Kennedy School, a bilingual German–American public school located in Zehlendorf, is particularly popular with children of diplomats and the English-speaking expatriate community. In addition, four schools ("Humanistische Gymnasien") teach Latin and Classical Greek, and are renowned for highest academic standards. Two of them are state schools (Steglitzer Gymnasium in Steglitz and Goethe-Gymnasium in Wilmersdorf), one is Protestant (Evangelisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster in Wilmersdorf), and one is Jesuit (Canisius-Kolleg in the "Embassy Quarter" in Tiergarten).
Universities, colleges, and research institutions in Berlin:
Berlin University:
The Berlin-Brandenburg capital region is one of the most prolific centers of higher education and research in the European Union. The city has four universities and 27 private, professional and technical colleges (Hochschulen), offering a wide range of disciplines. 135,327 students were registered at the 31 universities and colleges in 2008/09. The three largest universities combined have approximately 100,000 enrolled students. They are the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin with 35,000 students, the Freie Universität Berlin (Free University of Berlin) with ca. 35,000 students, and the Technische Universität Berlin with 30,000 students. The Universität der Künste has about 4,300 students.
Research Institutions in Berlin:
The city has a high density of research institutions, such as the Fraunhofer Society, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community and the Max Planck Society, which are independent of, or only loosely connected to its universities. A total number of 62,000 scientists are working in research and development. The city is one of the centers of knowledge and innovation communities (Future Information and Communication Society and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation) of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).
In addition to libraries that are affiliated with the various universities, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin is a major research library. Its two main locations are near Potsdamer Platz on Potsdamer Straße and on Unter den Linden. There are also 108 public libraries in the city.
ITB Berlin:
ITB Berlin gives important impulses to a continuously growing market. Exhibitor sales of about 6 billion Euro and an exhibitor satisfaction rate of 92 percent are evidence enough that supply and demand meet at the right place.
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