BERLIN CITY,BERLIN TRAVEL GUIDE,GERMANY

Berlin Travel Guide

For most of the latter part of the 20th century, Berlin has stood as a symbol of the division between East and West, split by the infamous fortified wall erected to separate the socialist sector from the democratic district. When the Berlin Wall was pulled down in 1990 the city discovered that it suddenly had two of everything, most notably two very distinct societies separated both socially and economically. The past decade has seen Berlin embracing unification and rebuilding itself as a modern European capital.
More than 100 streets have been reconnected, and signs of the Wall's existence have all but disappeared. Years of division are still reflected in the new city's architecture, however, with a modern city of skyscrapers, retail centres and urban developments in the West contrasting with most of the pre-War city that remains in the East.

BERLIN TRAVEL GUIDE:Brandenburg Gate
The impressive and symbolic Brandenburg Gate that lay forlorn for so long in the no man’s land behind the Berlin Wall, is now once again renovated and accessible, along with the newly reconstructed Pariser Platz that links the gate to the beautiful Unter den Linden Boulevard. The gate is Berlin’s only remaining city gate, built of sandstone between 1788 and 1791 with 12 Doric columns according to a design by C.G. Langhans. Six columns support an 36ft (11m) transverse beam, similar to the propylaeum of the Acropolis in Athens. The massive gate is topped with a stunning statue of the Goddess of Victory facing east towards the city centre (this was added in 1794). The gate is closed to traffic, as is the adjacent Pariser Platz, a gracious square that was once surrounded with beautiful buildings sadly destroyed in the Second World War. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall new buildings have been built, however, to designs closely following those of the originals.

BERLIN TRAVEL GUIDE:Checkpoint Charlie
The infamous border crossing point in the wall dividing West and East Berlin has now become a shrine to the wall’s memory with the addition of a museum, Haus am Checkpoint Charlie. For nearly 30 years, between 1961 and 1990, Checkpoint Charlie in the Friedrichstrasse was the only crossing point between East and West Berlin. The soldier’s post can be visited, and tourists can be photographed under the border sign.

BERLIN TRAVEL GUIDE:Eastside Gallery
The remains of the infamous Berlin Wall have now become the largest open-air art gallery in the world. The longest section of the wall, which has been preserved, stretches from Ostbahnhof station to the Oberbaumbrucke, and has been given over to graffiti artists from around the world. A total of 118 artists from 21 countries have exerted their skills on the 4,318ft (1,316m) long section of the wall, and this collection has become a Berlin landmark and a tourist attraction. Best known paintings are Dimitri Vrubel's Brotherly Kiss and Gunther Shaefer's Fatherland. The gallery is billed as an international memorial for freedom.

BERLIN TRAVEL GUIDE:Jewish museum
Although relatively new the Jewish Museum in Lindenstrasse has already gained an international reputation for its significant architecture and unique exhibitions that bring history alive. The bulk of the museum is housed in a windowless and doorless steel-clad, silver building, designed by Daniel Libeskind, sited alongside the yellow Baroque edifice of the Berlin Museum. Visitors enter the Jewish Museum through the Berlin Museum to explore the exhibition rooms, which are clustered around a main axis void, designed to signify the empty and invisible aspects of Jewish history.

BERLIN TRAVEL GUIDE:Hamburger Bahnhof
One of the most popular art galleries in Berlin is housed in a train station. The historic Hamburger Bahnhof, built in 1846 at the Tiergarten, was badly damaged during the Second World War, but has been restored and reopened, with some modern elements added to the architecture, as an exhibition venue for an extensive contemporary art collection. The former station now offers 107,639 square feet (10,000 sq metres) of space filled with works by the likes of Andy Warhol, Josephy Beuys and Roy Lichtenstein. The basis of the exhibition is the Marx private collection, but there are changing exhibitions and good examples of the Italian Transavanguardia and minimalist art on show too.

BERLIN TRAVEL GUIDE:Potsdamer Platz
This vibrant square is the heart and soul of the 'New Berlin', which has emerged since the fall of the wall in 1989. The original square was once one of the busiest junctions in Europe with a major train station sited on it. However after damage during the Second World War and being cut through by the divisive wall, it became a decayed wasteland. Since the fall of the wall, however, a building boom has been taking place around the Potsdamer Platz, which now boasts an exciting mix of restaurants, shopping centres, hotels, a casino, theatres and cinemas that draws both Berliners and tourists seeking good food and recreation. Focus of the square is the 22-storey Debis Haus, designed by Renzo Piano, featuring an atrium with cathedral-like dimensions, and its neighbouring Potsdamer Platz Arkaden, a shopping mall with an Imax cinema. The Sony Centre is the most recent addition, consisting of seven buildings around a light-flooded arena, which also houses Berlin’s popular Film Museum. The Kollhoff building features a panorama platform, reached by Europe’s fastest express elevator, which offers views of the city.

BERLIN TRAVEL GUIDE:The Story of Berlin
One of Berlin's most popular attractions, the unusual exhibition recounts the history of the German capital city from its foundation until the fall of the Wall. The Story of Berlin is divided into 25 themed rooms and pays attention to the feelings, thoughts and living conditions of common Berliners. One of its main attractions is the nuclear bunker that was built during the Cold War in the 1970s. Guided tours are available every hour.

For nearly 30 years the Wall sealed off the imposing Brandenburg Gate from the West, but now traffic passes through it freely. Similarly Alexanderplatz, which was one of the main centres of 1920s Berlin, and later post-war East Germany, has once again become one of the city's focal centres. The site of the infamous Check Point Charlie with its threatening monitoring tower erected to ensure no one crossed over from East to West, is now a museum, and while the tower no longer stands, visitors can see the East Side Gallery, a surviving chunk of the real Wall, now decorated by local artists.
Berlin is once again a vibrant centre for the arts, with many museums, galleries and theatres. At the Kulturforum visitors will find a number of impressive museums and concert venues from the spectacular Berliner Philharmonie concert hall to the complex's Picture Gallery, which houses a vast collection of European paintings from the 13th to 18th centuries.
Berlin still boasts a fantastic nightlife, and while tastes have changed since the height of the cabaret halls of the 1920s and 30s, there is a vast array of venues catering to all tastes. Berlin's calendar is also packed with festivals and parties from the Christopher Street Day gay and lesbian parade in June to the massive Love Parade dance party in July and the Jazz Fest Berlin in November.