Berlin & Brandenburg

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Overview

Although it surrounds bustling Berlin, the Brandenburg state of mind is as far from the German capital as Shangri-La. It’s a quiet, gentle state with vast expanses of unspoilt scenery, much of it in protected nature reserves. Its landscape is quilted in myriad shades, from emerald beech forest to golden fields of rapeseed and sunflowers. It’s also rather flat, windswept and perhaps even a bit melancholic.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

East Side Gallery

Friedrichshain

The East Side Gallery is the embodiment of Berlin’s grit and guts.
Schloss Charlottenburg

City West & Charlottenburg

Charlottenburg Palace is one of Berlin's few sites that still reflect the one-time grandeur of the Hohenzollern clan, which ruled the region from 1415 to…
Volkspark Friedrichshain

Friedrichshain

Berlin’s oldest public park has provided relief from urbanity since 1840, but has been hilly only since the late 1940s, when wartime debris was piled up…
Gemäldegalerie

Berlin

This museum ranks among the world's finest and most comprehensive collections of European art with about 1500 paintings spanning the arc of artistic…
Zoo Berlin

City West & Charlottenburg

Berlin's zoo holds a triple record as Germany's oldest (since 1844), most species-rich and most popular animal park. Top billing at the moment goes to a…
Stasi Prison

Berlin

Victims of Stasi persecution often ended up in this grim remand prison, now a memorial site officially called Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen. Tours …
Potsdamer Platz

Berlin

The rebirth of the historic Potsdamer Platz was Europe's biggest building project of the 1990s, a showcase of urban renewal masterminded by such top…
Jüdisches Museum

Kreuzberg

In a landmark building by American-Polish architect Daniel Libeskind, Berlin’s Jewish Museum offers a chronicle of the trials and triumphs in 2000 years…