• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 2561 0

for the full visual and emotional impact. Next, get your camera ready for the majestic Brandenburger Tor (6; Brandenburg Gate; ), the ultimate symbol of German reunification. It anchors Pariser Platz (7; Click here), a harmoniously proportioned square where you should gawk at Frank Gehry’s eye-popping atrium inside the DZ Bank (8). Continue north on Ebertstrasse past the moving Wall Victims Memorial (9), which honours those who died trying to escape the GDR. The hulking Reichstag (10; Click here), where the German parliament meets, looms nearby.

Walk north to the Paul-Löbe-Haus (11), where members of parliament keep their offices, then west on Paul-Löbe-Allee to the Bundeskanzleramt (12; Click here), the office of the German chancellor. Head north across Otto-von-Bismarck-Allee to the Spreebogenpark (13) with the sweeping glass roof of the Hauptbahnhof (14) in full view across the Spree River.

Follow the river promenade east past the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus (15), home of the parliamentary library, to Luisenstrasse. Cross the bridge, which offers good views back to the Reichstag. Continuing south on Luisenstrasse soon takes you to Unter den Linden (16; Click here), Berlin’s grand historic boulevard. Turn left, walk past the monumental Russian Embassy (17) and hook a right onto Friedrichstrasse.

Soon you’ll arrive at the Friedrichstadtpassagen, a trio of spectacularly designed – on the inside, anyway – shopping complexes called ‘quartiers’, which are linked by a subterranean walkway. Galeries Lafayette (18; Click here) centres on Jean Nouvel’s giant plexiglass funnel that reflects light like some mutated hologram. Next door, Quartier 206 (19) is a dazzling art-deco-inspired symphony in glass and marble beneath a tented glass roof. Quartier 205 (20) has a lofty atrium dominated by John Chamberlain’s three-storey tall tower created from crushed automobile parts.

For a dose of Cold War history, carry on along Friedrichstrasse for another 500m to the site of Checkpoint Charlie (21; Click here), the most famous ex–border crossing between East and West Berlin. The nearby Haus am Checkpoint Charlie (22; Click here) has haphazard but interesting exhibits about the history of the Berlin Wall and spectacular escape attempts.

Otherwise proceed from Quartier 205 by turning left on Mohrenstrasse to get to Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin’s most beautiful square. It’s anchored by Schinkel’s Konzerthaus Berlin (23; Click here) and the sumptuous towers of the Deutscher Dom (24; Click here) and the Französischer Dom (25; Click here).

Walk north on Markgrafenstrasse, then east on Behrenstrasse to Bebelplatz, site of the infamous Nazi book burnings in 1933. A trio of imposing 18th-century buildings stand on this austere square: the Alte Königliche Bibliothek (26; Old Royal Library), the St-Hedwigskirche (27) and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (28; Click here). Nearby is the epic Reiterdenkmal Friedrich des Grossen (29), an equestrian statue of the king who financed this lovely ensemble.

* * *

WALK FACTS

Start Potsdamer Platz ( Unter den Linden)

Finish Hackesche Höfe ( Hackescher Markt)

Distance 9km

Duration Three to four hours without museums, all day with some museums

* * *

On the north side of Unter den Linden are the Humboldt Universität (30; Click here) and, a bit further east, Schinkel’s Neue Wache (31; Click here). Across the street is the Kronprinzenpalais (32), a one-time royal palace, while the pink building opposite is the Zeughaus, an armoury converted into the Deutsches Historisches Museum (33; Click here) with a modern extension by IM Pei, the IM Pei Bau (34; Click here).

Now walk east towards the river and cross the bridge to the Museumsinsel, a cluster of world-class repositories of art and sculpture. On your left are the Pergamonmuseum (35; Click here), a treasure trove of antiquities, and the Bodemuseum (36; Click here) with centuries of European art. In front is the resurrected Neues Museum (37; Click here), which is most famous for its ancient Egyptian collection. Behind it, the Alte Nationalgalerie