Where do you experience Berlin's history?
Hardly any city carries the 20th century as visibly as Berlin. Remnants of the Wall, memorials and museums tell the story of National Socialism, the division of Germany and the Cold War. We have gathered the places where that history becomes tangible, with notes on what to see first and what costs anything.
Historic sites in Berlin
The Wall, the divided city and the culture of remembrance, curated and honestly assessed.
Bauhaus Archive
The Bauhaus Archive holds the world's largest collection on the history of the Bauhaus.
Bellevue Palace
The German President's first official residence, in a neoclassical palace on the edge of the Tiergarten.
Berlin State Opera
Frederick's magnificent opera house of 1743 on the grand avenue Unter den Linden, still one of Europe's most important opera stages.
Berlin Underworlds
Guided tours through Berlin's bunkers, shelters and underground structures, starting from the museum at Gesundbrunnen station.
Berlin Wall Memorial
The central place of remembrance for the division, with a preserved border strip on Bernauer Straße.
Berlin-Dahlem Arboretum
The arboretum in the Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Garden gathers a systematic collection of native and hardy trees across some 14 hectares.
Botanical Garden Berlin
With over 43 hectares and around 22,000 plant species, one of the largest and most diverse botanical gardens in the world.
Brandenburg Gate
Berlin's most famous landmark on Pariser Platz, transformed from a symbol of division into a symbol of unity.
Charlottenburg Palace
Berlin's largest surviving palace, with Baroque splendor and expansive palace gardens.
Charlottenburg Palace Gardens
An expansive palace park behind Berlin's largest Hohenzollern palace, combining Baroque splendor with an English landscape garden.
Checkpoint Charlie
The former border crossing between East and West, today a symbol of the Cold War.
DDR Museum
An interactive museum on everyday life in the GDR, right on the Spree opposite the cathedral.
East Side Gallery
The longest surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall, painted by artists from around the world into an open-air gallery.
German Historical Museum
Germany's national museum of its own history, housed in the Baroque Zeughaus and the modern Pei building on Unter den Linden.
Glienicke Palace
The neoclassical summer palace of Prince Carl of Prussia, with an Italian-inspired landscape park by the Glienicke Bridge.
Hackesche Höfe
A winding ensemble of eight interconnected commercial courtyards with Art Nouveau facades in the heart of the Spandauer Vorstadt.
Holocaust Memorial
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, with 2,711 concrete steles near the Brandenburg Gate.
Humboldt University of Berlin
A tradition-rich university founded in 1810, in the Baroque palace on the boulevard Unter den Linden.
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church)
A war-ruined church tower kept standing as an anti-war memorial, paired with a modern sanctuary that glows deep blue.
Köpenick Old Town
A dreamy old-town island at the confluence of the Spree and Dahme, famous for the Captain of Köpenick.
Lietzensee Park
A crescent-shaped inner-city lake with a lakeside promenade, cascades and grand Gründerzeit buildings in the middle of Charlottenburg.
Natural History Museum
Germany's largest natural history museum, home to the tallest mounted dinosaur skeleton in the world.
Neue Wache
Schinkel's neoclassical guardhouse on Unter den Linden is today Germany's central memorial to the victims of war and tyranny.
Nikolai Quarter
A reconstructed old town around the Nikolaikirche, with narrow lanes and views of the Spree.
Panke River
The river that gives the Pankow district its name, a green walking corridor from the Barnim to the Spree.
Plänterwald and Spreepark
A floodplain forest on the Spree and the legendary Ferris wheel of the defunct Spreepark, now being rebuilt into an art and culture park.
Rotes Rathaus
Berlin's striking brick city hall and seat of the Governing Mayor in the heart of the historic center.
Rudower Höhe
A 70-meter rubble hill on the southern edge of the city with wide views over Berlin and the surrounding area.
Schöneberg Südgelände Nature Park
An 18-hectare nature park where nature has reclaimed a former railway yard.
Spandau Citadel
One of the best-preserved Renaissance fortresses in Europe, with a medieval keep, the Julius Tower and expansive grounds on the Havel.
Spreebogen
The striking bend of the Spree at the heart of Berlin's government quarter, with the Reichstag and the Chancellery.
Topography of Terror
A documentation center on the former Gestapo grounds tracing the history of Nazi terror.
Treptower Park
An expansive park on the Spree with the monumental Soviet War Memorial.
Viktoriapark
A green hilltop park on the 66-meter Kreuzberg, with Schinkel's national monument, an artificial waterfall and wide views over the city.
Volkspark Friedrichshain
Berlin's oldest municipal park, from 1846, with the Fairy Tale Fountain, rubble hills and wide meadows.
History in the magazine
Exploring the history: good to know
Where can you still see the Berlin Wall today?
The longest surviving stretch is the East Side Gallery in Friedrichshain, close to a mile of painted concrete along the Spree. To understand how the border system actually worked, go to the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Straße, which preserves a section of the border strip and a watchtower site.
Which places explain the division of Germany best?
Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall Memorial and the DDR Museum convey both the everyday life and the politics of the divided city. The Topography of Terror documents the Nazi era on the site of the former Gestapo headquarters.
Are the memorial sites free?
Many of the central sites of remembrance are freely accessible, including the East Side Gallery, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the Topography of Terror and the Berlin Wall Memorial. Museums such as the DDR Museum charge admission.
What was the GDR?
The German Democratic Republic, or GDR, was the socialist East German state that existed from 1949 until reunification in 1990. Berlin sat inside it, but the western half of the city remained under Allied control, which is why the Wall was built through the middle of it in 1961.
Keep exploring
Tours on the Wall, the Cold War and modern history
Guided tours covering the Wall, the Cold War and the Nazi era, led by local guides.
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