This is a street that you should come to for a look, but don't expect anything huge to jump out at…read moreyou or make you gaze in wonder. It is more about experiencing the uniformity and greyness of this part of the city before the wall came down. These were meant to be some of the plusher flats available but they were in huge blocks on a massive road. This area seems ...... Poorer... than other bits of the city. Definitely worth a look though and off some off the side streets there is some cool up and coming areas developing.

Karl Marx Allee was somewhere I just HAD to visit. I am a huge fan of history and I especially love…read moreSoviet and Communist history, so when I was heading to Berlin this was near the top of my to-do list. The Allee IS the sight, this is the main thing you come to see - the buildings. The whole area is constructed in a typical old Soviet style, the sort of which I had only seen in books. This means lots of angles, lots of symmetry... hard rock and the like. Highly unique and very striking! There is a great statue of Karl Marx a little way down as well which is great to see and to take a photo with. Another of the highlight here is the famous Cafe Moskau. It has a sputnik on the roof, you cannot miss it! When we were there it just so happened that there was a beer festival happening as well! A huge, international, beer festival at that! It was a pleasant surpise! This is a fantastic walk with a lot of history to it. It's nice just to walk along and think about the past. As long as you don't mind a rather long trip, this is a must!

Just happened to see this bridge after walking through the entire length of the East Side Gallery…read moreWall and amused by its beauty. Wished I had the time to explore more. It's a double deck bridge and has a walking tunnel with beautiful vaults and towers.

In the past, this bridge was an exchange-place of agents between east and west…read more And it's also known, cause of the german action film "Lola rennt"

Definitely a landmark to visit and to think back that this was the gateway between East & West…read moreGermany plus plenty of history taken place here. Glad I came during off season so not much of tourists around. It's very impressive and historical site.

This is an awesome landmark to visit while in Berlin! The same spot where the wall was dividing…read morewest and east Berlin. Hotel nearby is also where Michael Jackson let his baby "blanket" be held out the window. Major tourist spot so don't be surprised if you have to wait 30 minutes before there's ideal photo moments when the waves of crowds subside. Also don't be surprised some girls may walk up to you and ask for money / donations by asking you "do you speak English". They may claim to be doing it for "charity". Do not let these people bully you into handing over money.

Located about a 10 minute walk from Cecelienhof, this former Soviet Counter-Intelligence Detention…read moreCenter is a worthwhile stop. I stumbled on it by accident while taking a long walk to Sansoucci from Cecelienhof. Of course, Sansoucci means "without cares",- and anyone in residence here would have more cares than they could deal with. The Memorial has been open since 2009 when restoration work was completed on the building. Check the website for opening hours. My tour lasted a half hour,- this isn't a large site, but it gives you a stark impression of what the prisoners of the KGB went through. Many personal stories are detailed,- the main thing is the building is very well preserved as it was when in use as a prison, and so you can clearly see the conditions the prisoners who disappeared into here lived in, even if you can't imagine quite what it would have been like to have been one of them.

This plaza sits between the Berlin State Opera House and the Law Library of Humboldt University. In…read morethe middle of the wide expanse of cobblestones is a window in the ground - a memorial to the May 10, 1993 book burning that Nazi's held to burn books they banned. These were books by authors they persecuted or topics they forbade Germans to learn about, including the works of hundreds of independent authors, journalists, philosophers and academics. About 20,000 books went up in flame. Nazis claimed that their actions were for the benefit of the people, preventing decadence and moral decay. The quote from the plaque on the ground - "That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people as well." Heinrich Heine 1820 Below the glass window in the ground is a lit room, blank, its white shelves sit empty, a space for 20,000 books. The memorial was dedicated in March 1995, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn about this historic event in history. What a poignant reminder to question when government authorities seek to limit the access to education of varied perspectives, and undermine support of and turn public opinion against minorities and those of different backgrounds.

Bebelplatz is in the center of Humboldt Universität…read more We came here to see the Empty Library, the symbol and site where books were burned during the dark day of National Socialism. Unfortunately, given the typical Berlin weather, there was a great deal of condensation on the inside of the plexiglass. Grrr Others and Lars S have posted much better photos. As he says in his post: "Die leeren Bücherregale erinnern a die Bücherverbrennung auf diesem Platz."Never forget.

I felt this was extremely powerful. There is a free audioguide you can use with your phone from a…read moreQR code on the map. Along the way they offer sights/memorials to the times of The Wall. This is a complete free activity unless you join a tour. There are plenty of materials to read, buttons to press and listen to information, and things to see.

Yelp Review 2023 #300…read more "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" US President Ronald Reagan Berlin Wall was built to separate East (German Democratic Republic supported by the Soviets) and West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) in 1961. It's a 96 mile heavily guarded concrete wall about 13 feet high splitting the city center so that people from the East won't come to the West due to political and economic differences. There's not a doubt building a wall is alienating. Friends and families got separated by it. Soldiers and watchdogs were put in place to prevent people escaping but some people were still able to get to the West by building a tunnel but most people didn't make it across and lost their lives. Gorbachev was in power of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union in 1985 and things started to dismantle. The wall finally fell in 1989. Some parts of the wall still remain standing and murals have been painted on parts of the wall. The most famous mural is "The Kiss" by Dmitri Vrubel of Leonid Brezhnev (General Secretary of the Soviet Union at the time), and Erich Honecker (General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of the GDR) kissing - the socialist way of greeting. You can also spot a Banksy. Keep your eyes peeled since it's not a big and colorful piece. It's free to walk along and see the Berlin Wall remains.

Neue Wache is located in the Mitte section of Berlin on Unter den Linden, this neoclassical…read morememorial designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel was originally dedicated to those who fell in the Napoleonic Wars in the first decade and half of the 19th century, and also served as a royal guardhouse through the end of the monarchy in 1918. Through the years, the purpose of the memorial changed several times--from paying tribute to Victims of the Great War in 1931, to commemorating the Victims of Fascism and Militarism in 1960 GDR times, to memorializing the unknown victims of WWII in 1969, followed by the most recent dedication to the Victims of War and Dictatorship in 1993. In the center of the monument interior is the statue "Mother with her Dead Son" by Käthe Kollwitz. It's a powerful, solemn scene. Although it was too late to enter the monument, I felt a level of gravitas conveyed by the simple, Classical pillars of the building exterior; the rows of trees planted adjacent to the building felt like a measured comforting buffer to accompany the austerity of the structure. In any case I'm glad I stopped by!

I confess we would have never enter this place if our guide wouldn't have insist us and told us the…read morestory of the sculpture. It's huge, they left the ceiling open so nature takes care of creating the atmosphere with its cold, it's snow, rain or a 40 degrees Celsius in summer. It is quite moving and sad, but I find it is part of our history, of human nature. We need to bare in mind what war can do so we don't go to war anymore!! Confieso que nunca hubiera entrado aquí si no fuera por el guía que insistió y nos contó la historia de esta escultura. Es enorme, dejaron el techo sin nada para que la naturaleza se encargue de crear una atmósfera con el frío, la nieve, la lluvia y el sol de 40 grados en verano. Es muy fuerte, es muy triste pero la encuentro como parte de nuestra historia, de la naturaleza humana. Necesitamos no olvidar lo que nos paso en las guerras así no hay más guerras!!