Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [84]
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Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg gets its street cred from being delightfully edgy, wacky and, most of all, unpredictable. The western half around Bergmannstrasse and Mehringdamm is solidly in the hands of upmarket bohemians and also harbours the essential-viewing Jewish Museum. Eastern Kreuzberg (still called SO36, after its pre-reunification postal code), by contrast, is a multicultural, multigenerational mosaic with the most dynamic nightlife in town. Dönerias rub up against Brazilian cafes; headscarf-wearing mamas push prams past punks with metal-penetrated faces and black-haired Goths draped in floor-length leather coats chill next to bright-faced students at an outdoor cinema.
For the Schwules Museum (Gay Museum), see the boxed text on Click here.
JÜDISCHES MUSEUM
For an eye-opening, emotional and interactive exploration of 2000 years of Jewish history in Germany visit the impressive Jüdisches Museum (Jewish Museum; Map; 2599 3300; www.jmberlin.de; Lindenstrasse 9-14; adult/concession/family €5/2.50/10; 10am-10pm Mon, 10am-8pm Tue-Sun). You’ll learn about Jewish cultural contributions, holiday traditions, the difficult road to Emancipation, and outstanding individuals, such as jeans inventor Levi Strauss and philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. Only one section deals directly with the Holocaust, but its horrors are poignantly reflected by Daniel Libeskind’s powerful museum building. Essentially a 3-D metaphor for Jewish suffering, its silvery zinc walls are sharply angled, and instead of windows there are only small gashes piercing the building’s gleaming skin. The visual allegory continues on the inside where a steep staircase descends to three intersecting walkways – called ‘axes’ – representing the fates of Jews during the Nazi years: death, exile and continuity. Only the last leads to the actual exhibit.
BERLINISCHE GALERIE
Discover what the Berlin art scene has been up to for, oh, the past century or so at the Berlinische Galerie (Map; 7890 2600; Alte Jakobstrasse 124-128; adult/concession/under 18yr €6/3/free; 10am-6pm) in a converted glass warehouse near the Jewish Museum. It presents a fine overview of various genres – Secessionism, Dadaism and Fluxus art, expressionism, Nazi art and contemporary art – on two floors linked by a pair of intersecting floating stairways.
CHECKPOINT CHARLIE
Checkpoint Charlie (Map) was the principal gateway for Allies, other non-Germans and diplomats between the two Berlins from 1961 to 1990. Unfortunately, this potent symbol of the Cold War has become a tacky tourist trap where uniformed actors pose with tourists (for tips) next to a replica guardhouse.
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KREUZKÖLLN: THE NEW FRONTIER OF HIPNESS
Once boxed in on three sides by the Berlin Wall, Kreuzberg used to be the western city’s countercultural catch basin for students, punks, draft dodgers and squatters. No more. The fall of the Wall catapulted it from the city’s edge to its centre, eventually entailing rising rents and tendrils of gentrification.
As a result, students, artists, creative types and others longing for cheap flats and the improvisational spirit of the past decades have of late been pushing the frontier further south, into the northern reaches of the bad-rap ‘ghetto’ of Neukölln. Christened ‘Kreuzkölln’, the area along Reuterstrasse, Hobrechtstrasse and Weserstrasse is the ever-burgeoning home of a funky anti-scene. With plenty of shoestring, trashy-cool bars, pubs, galleries, shops and cafes popping up all the time, Kreuzkölln is tailor-made for some intense DIY exploring.