AquaDom & Sea Life Center
There’s an interesting lift from the ground floor 25 metres up to the penthouse floor, passing exotic reefs on the way. Otherwise lots of fish in over 30 pools. Pretty expensive. Make your own comparison with the aquarium at the Zoo.
www.sealife.de
Berliner Dom
Berlin’s most impressive church building with a bigger floor area than Cologne Cathedral. It was severely damaged in the war; restoration work only started in 1975. The huge dome gives the building its character. In the Hohenzollern Crypt the Prussian kings and Kaisers lie in dust and ashes.
Berliner Rathaus (Berlin Town Hall)
Since 1991 this has once again been the seat of the governing mayor of Berlin. Berliners call it the Red Town Hall – which refers not to Berlin’s politics but the building’s red bricks. Follow the red carpet at the main entrance to the interactive terminal on the first floor. Here you can click through a programme of information on Berlin.
Brandenburger Tor ( Brandenburg Gate)
Built 1789-91 as a victory gate by C.G. Langhans. Berlin once had 18 city gates – this is the only one remaining. It is modelled on the Propylaea in Athens; the Quadriga is in Roman style. Badly damaged in the war, the Gate was rebuilt in 1957. After the Wall was built it became a landmark and symbol of the division and reunification of Germany.
East Side Gallery
The longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall (1.3 km long) is an open-air gallery. It contains lots of graffiti and other artworks on the theme “environment, tolerance and freedom”, all painted since 1989.
Fernsehturm am Alexanderplatz
The TV Tower at Alexanderplatz is Berlin’s tallest building. So that nobody could forget the heights socialist construction technology could achieve, East German communist party boss Walter Ulbricht demanded that the tower should be as many metres high as the days of the year – a number any idiot could remember. Today it’s three metres higher with a new tip. Since Berlin lies flat on the north German plain it’s worth going up the tower to see the view over the city from the platform at 203 metres.
Hackesche Höfe
This wonderful mixture of art, commerce and apartments has become very crowded in recent years. The people who live there may not always be thrilled with the busloads of tourists, but this Art Nouveau ensemble of eight interconnected courtyards is a must for visitors to the city.
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche
The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was built at the end of the 19th century and destroyed during the war. Only the ruined tower of the church remains as a memorial of the Second World War. The new church building beside it, designed by Egon Eiermann, is an intriguing mixture of old and modern architecture. Guided tours from Monday to Saturday at 1.15 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.
Olympiastadion
The Olympic Stadium is the centre of the sports complex designed for the 1936 Olympic Games. At first glance the rebuilding in 2004 has not made much difference. In fact, the classical torso of the stadium conceals one of Europe’s most up-to-date multifunctional arenas. The new much-admired floodlighting system illuminates the green grass and the blue tartane track (blue is the colour of Hertha, Berlin’s First Division football team), leaving the 70,000 spectators in the dark.
Regierungsviertel (Government Quarter)
Most government buildings are located in the Tiergarten and Mitte, such as the Federal President’s Office, the Bundesrat (Upper Chamber of Parliament), the ministries and the Foreign Ministry. The “sash of the nation” with the Chancellery and the Bundestag buildings to the north of the Reichstag (Paul-Löbe-Haus, Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus and Jakob-Kaiser-Haus) crosses the Spree from east to west, creating a symbolic link between once-divided parts of the city.