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who worshipped here. The dome can be climbed. From the top you can easily spot a crumbling building that, upon closer inspection, looks like the ‘Sistine Chapel of Graffiti’. It’s the Kunsthaus Tacheles (Map; 282 6185; Oranienburger Strasse 54-56; admission free), a one-time department store turned artists’ squat after reunification and now a beloved alternative art and culture space. It may look scary, but don’t let that stop you from poking around the studios, galleries and backyard or to cool your heels in the cafe or beer garden.

The Scheunenviertel’s most charismatic side reveals itself in the village-like labyrinth of lanes off Oranienburger Strasse. Embark on an aimless wander and you’ll find surprises lurking around every corner: here an intriguing public sculpture, there a cosy watering hole, a 19th-century ballroom or a bleeding-edge gallery such as Kunst-Werke Berlin (Map 243 4590; Auguststrasse 69; adult/concession €6/4; noon-7pm Tue, Wed & Fri-Sun, to 9pm Thu). A particularly enchanting feature of the Scheunenviertel is the quarter’s Höfe, interlinked hidden courtyards filled with cafes, boutiques and party venues. The best known is the Hackesche Höfe (Map) but also check out the quiet and dignified Sophie-Gips-Höfe (Map) and the breezy Heckmannhöfe (Map).

The quarter’s Jewish heritage is never far away either. Everywhere you look you’ll see small brass paving stones commemorating Nazi victims (see boxed text, Click here). The great Enlightenment philosopher Moses Mendelssohn was among the 12,000 people buried on Alter Jüdischer Friedhof (Map); the city’s oldest Jewish cemetery on Grosse Hamburger Strasse. Next to the Hackesche Höfe, the small Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt (Map; 2859 9407; Rosenthaler Strasse 39; admission free; 10am-8pm) documents how broom and brush maker Otto Weidt saved many of his blind and deaf Jewish workers from the Nazis. And in the same building, the Anne Frank Zentrum (Map; 288 865 610; Rosenthaler Strasse 39; adult/concession/family €4/2.50/8; 10am-6pm Tue-Sun) uses artefacts and photographs to tell the extraordinary story of the famous German-Jewish girl. Museum staff also rents an ‘i-guide’ tour through the Jewish quarter (€5).

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BEARMANIA

Polar bear Knut of the Berlin Zoo may have been hogging the headlines in recent years, but no, he’s not Berlin’s ‘official’ bear. That privilege belongs to a brown bear named Schnute who resides with her daughter Maxi in a pit near the Märkisches Museum. Schnute’s long-time main squeeze (and Maxi’s dad) Thilo sadly died in April 2007. The two girls usually receive visitors from 8am to 5pm (9am to 3pm October to March).

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STUMBLING UPON HISTORY

Look down and you’ll see them everywhere, but especially in the Scheunenviertel: small brass paving stones engraved with names and placed in front of house entrances. Part of a nationwide project initiated by Berlin-born artist Gunter Demnig, these so-called Stolpersteine (stumbling blocks) are essentially mini-memorials to the people (usually Jews) who lived in the building in front of which they’re placed before being killed by the Nazis. Berlin’s Jewish community suffered tremendously during the Third Reich. In 1933 there were 160,000 Jews living in Berlin; by 1945, 55,000 had been murdered, 100,000 had emigrated and only 5000 remained. Today, about 13,000 Jews live in town, most of them fairly recent arrivals from Russian republics.

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ORANIENBURGER TOR AREA

Berlin’s traditional theatre district stretches along Friedrichstrasse, south of Oranienburger Tor (Map). Major venues include the flashy Friedrichstadtpalast, the eccentric Admiralspalast and the Berliner Ensemble, founded by Bertolt Brecht in the 1950s.

In fact Brecht, one of Germany’s seminal 20th-century playwrights, lived just up the street in what is now the memorial Brecht-Weigel Gedenkstätte (Map; 200 571 844; Chausseestrasse 125; tours adult/concession €3/1.50; tours half-hourly 10-11.30am Tue-Fri, 5-6.30pm Thu, 10am-3.30pm Sat, hourly 11am-6pm Sun). Tours take you into Brecht