You want to visit Berlin? Good choice! Don't have much time? No problem!
You need a few tips? We have them! Berlin's Top 10!
To be exact: these are some of the sights no Berlin visitor should miss.
Let's go!
Famous places connected to German history.
World-class museums that have made it onto UNESCO's world heritage list.
And striking buildings, internationally known as Berlin landmarks.
Let's start with number 10 of the top sights: the Humboldt Forum.
It looks old, but it's Berlin's newest attraction. The city palace of the Prussian kings used to
stand here. It was badly damaged in World War II, then demonlished and only recently rebuilt.
Inside, the Humboldt Forum is a modern museum building with various exhibitions.
The Ethnological Collection, for example, shows objects from
Africa, Asia, South America and the South Seas.
In an exhibition dedicated to Berlin you can turn the wheel of history and watch scenes from the
city's past spring to life on the monitors. Another artefact on display:
the door of the legendary techno club "Tresor"!
Entry to the Humboldt Forum and most of its exhibitions is free!
From one palace to the next: the Friedrichstadt-Palast is
Number 9 on our list of the most popular Berlin attractions.
Daredevil acrobats,
sensational choreography.
Up to 780, 000 guests a year see the revues in Berlin's Friedrichstadt-Palast,
which boasts the world's largest theater stage. If you think that the revue is a dying artorm,
this is the best place to be convinced otherwise.
Bi-annually a new show premiers,
with costumes designed by stars like Jean-Paul Gaultier,
Christian Lacroix,
or Philip Treacy.
For more than a century the Friedrichstadt-Palast has been a fixture of Berlin's nightlife.
You can't miss number 8 on our best of Berlin list: It's the world
famous TV tower on Alexanderplatz. With a staggering height of 368 meters
it's not only the tallest building in Berlin, but in all of Germany.
In just 40 seconds two elevators bring visitors to the observation deck,
situated 203 meters above the pavement. You won't find a better view of Berlin.
It's a bit scary. I didn't expect it to be quite so high.
When we looked for places to go in Berlin the first thing we saw is the great big tower.
You can recognize every monument from Berlin in only one view.
One floor up, you'll find a restaurant with a revolving panoramic platform.
While you have a bite, you can make a full circle around the city
and see all of Berlin's sights passing by below.
To avoid long queues it's best to book an online ticket.
They are pricier but bring you to the top in the blink of an eye!
That brings us to number 7: Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church,
a real emblem of Berlin's so-called City West. Easily recognized by its distinctive appearance:
the new and the old church tower. The church was destroyed in World War II
and the damaged tower was left as a reminder of the horrors of war.
In the early 1960s, the modern church building was added.
The interior might surprise you. It shines in blue and is reminiscent of
the atmosphere of old Gothic cathedrals with their large stained glass windows.
Here you can have a moment of peace and quiet, before you delve back into big city life.
You might need it before hitting the bustling high street Kurfürstendamm, a shopoholic's paradise.
Here you'll find expensive luxury labels alongside stores for smaller budgets.
Next, we head east to number 6 of Berlin's most popular hotspots: Checkpoint Charlie!
It was probably the most famous border crossing between East and West Berlin.
It was here American and Soviet tanks faced off in 1961, causing fears of another World War.
Although the wall has long since come down, tourists love
Checkpoint Charlie as a photo opp. The place however, has much more to offer.
Many exhibitions around it show you what it really meant to live in a divided city.
This 360-degree painting, for example, takes you back to the 1980s.
On to number 5: Here, where the river Spree divides,
lies the Museum Island. The island itself is a work of art named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It includes 5 museums with treasures of art from around the world:
The Altes Museum houses an extensive collection of antiquities.
The main attraction of the New Museum is the bust of queen Nefertiti.
And the Pergamon Museum, currently under renovation,
is home to the famous Pergamon Altar.
We visited only twice so far. One of them
was this Pergamon and the other one was the greek history. I think I like the greek history more.
Germany gathered a lot of treasures from other countries,
so it will be very interesting to me.
Annually, the Museum Island receives over 2 million visitors. Our tip:
Every first Sunday of the month the entrance is free, for all Museums on the Museum Island!
Also free, every day of the year, is the East Side Gallery, number 4 in our Berlin countdown.
It stretches for 1.3 kilometers, making it the longest open-air gallery in the world!
Right after the fall of the Berlin Wall, artists came from all over the world, and painted the gray surface.
Among the most famous are the "Socialist fraternal kiss" or the
Trabant car breaking through the Wall. About 1 million tourists stop by at the
East Side Gallery on a yearly basis and few can resist taking a photo.
Nearby you can see the Oberbaum Bridge, which connects the districts of Friedrichshain and
Kreuzberg. Since reopening it has become another symbol of the once divided city.
The Holocaust Memorial is our number 3, and also Berlin's third most visited tourist site.
It occupies a huge field, right in the heart of Berlin,
with almost 3,000 concrete slabs rising from the ground.
The further you venture inside, the more isolated and lost you feel. The memorial commemorates the
approximately 6 million Jewish people who were murdered by the Nazis in Europe during WW II.
The memorial is complemented by an exhibition underground.
Here you can see historical film and photographs, connected to the Holocaust.
In second place in our Berlin ranking is the Reichstag building,
attracting some 3 million visitors every year.
This is where the Bundestag, the German parliament, convenes.
Don't you think the glass dome at the top adds a certain lightness to the otherwise
massive structure? A spiralling walkway leads you to the top. Tickets for the dome and for the
guided tours through the building are free. But be sure to reserve them online nevertheless!
Even if you don't go inside, the hustle and bustle on the large
lawn in front of the Reichstag building is always exciting.
Tourists from all over the world flock to this place during the summer months.
That brings us to the number one spot in our Berlin top 10 countdown:
Behold: The Brandenburg Gate!
But you probably guessed that already.
It's without a doubt Berlin's most photographed landmark.
Just the magnificence of the building, how tall it is, the carvings that are
on each individual pillar is quite spectacular.
I felt so tiny in front of this massive building.
This is my first time to Europe and I have never been able to experience
anything as grand as this.
Today, visitors take passing through the gate as a given,
but back when Berlin was still divided, that was out of the question.
It was located in a restricted area. Only with the fall of the Wall in 1989, the story of the
Brandenburg Gate also got a happy ending.
Those were our 10 must-sees for your
visit to Berlin. If you liked this video, don't forget to subscribe to our channel!