Berlin Things to Do Tips by dlandt

TOP PICK - Treptow Park Soviet Victory Memorial

Treptow Park is the final resting place of several thousand Red Army soldiers who died taking Berlin. The most prominent feature is a large memorial of a Russian soldier holding a German girl in his arms while holding a sword and crushing a swastika beneath his feet. The many carved stoneworks along the flanks bear various victory quotes from Stalin and a lot of Soviet era propaganda. Someho or other, this memorial park does manage to get a subtle point across that the Russians did see themselves as the liberators of the German people suffering under a despotic Nazi regime, Most German people would rightly take issue with notion, but a Russian perception nonetheless. The park itself is done in true Russian style, which means BIG! The Russians try to make several points with the memorial park. They want to honor their own dead, they want to highlight the evil of the Nazis, and they want to remind the Germans, that they might one day return. This is the most eye opening WWII site in the city.

Directions: Treptow

Mauer Park, easy and free, see the Wall Berlin Wall Review

Mauer Park is a preserved section of the Berlin wall with a museum and viewing platform across the street. Inside the museum you can see historical videos and read or buy books and pamphlets in just about any language. Me, I had enough of that in school, but it was interesting to see the park itself. The last time I'd been to Berlin sections of the wall still stood but had a very mundane character. This was a little different in that when they chose to make the park, they chose one of the most histoircal and best viewed sections. For instance, in the picture you will see the famous graveyard which was cut in two by the wall. You can also enter the park and see what the wall looked like from the eastern side, no graffiti or anything fun like that. The platform gives you an idea what the wall might have looked like from a sentry's point of view.

Directions: Bernauerstr.

Der Siegsaeule - The Victory Column Victory Column Review

Although the wars this column commemorates pale in comparison to those which came later, they were extremely important in their time. The cannon lining the outside were captured in the three wars that built Prussia into a great power and led to the unification of Germany; The Austro-Prussian War, The Prussian-Danish War, and the Franco-Prussian War. For a few cents you can enter the building and look at a mosaic, then climb up and see out over the city for the typical panorama view. The true interest in this monument however, is that it deals with some of the more obscure aspects of Prussian History. (Obscure at least to everyone but the Danes.)

Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten Soviet War Memorial Review

Near the Brandenburger Tor is the Soviet War Memorial. Quite prominent to the eye, there isn't a whole lot for a tourist to see here. There are eight or ten small placards with pictures and some brief history, as well as the flora of the park itself, but nothing spectacular aside from the pair of T-34s standing guard at the gates and a couple of old cannon.

Directions: Tiergarten

Holocaust Memorial Holocaust Memorial Review

OK, this is as seen from the window of a slowly passing car, but you can actually walk around between the pillars. The ground looked like it kind of sloped downwards so they are taller than they look.

Address: Cora-Berliner-Straße 1, 10117 Berlin

Directions: Next to Brandenburg Gate

Phone: +49 (0)30 / 200 766 - 0

Website: http://www.holocaust-mahnmal.de

Articles of German Constitution Etched in Glass Parliament Buildings Review

I found this wandering areound the Reichstag area. I thought it was pretty cool but I can't say they make for very exciting reading. Photographing it was a trick as its quite reflective.

Directions: By the Reichstag

Visit the Pergamum Museum

The Pergamum Museum was the best of the museums on the island, and one of the most unique in the world. Building on a long tradition of cooperating with the Turks, German archeologists have systematically created one of the best exhibits of the Ancient World with a focus on some of the less extensively treated peoples of old like the Hittites, Ur, and others. The cost to enter isn't much, aroudn ten euros or so, and the museum has two levels. On the lower level you have all the exhibits of the anciets, complete with replica city gates, recreated cities and mammoth stone exhibits, one of which is actually a city wall (shown here in picture number five). The upper level is more of a museum of Islamic Art and, though smaller and much more modest in scope (though still very impressive and includes the city wall), is of interest as well.

Address: Museum Insel

Directions: On Museum Island

Visit the Altes Museum Altes Museum Review

Also known as the "Old Museum", it features collections of archeological significance from Greece, Rome, Egypt and a few others. I have to admit to having seen bigger and better, but this is a nice museum. The Pergamum Museum is much more unique, but the Altes Museum has some gems as well.

Address: Museum Insel

Directions: Museum Insel

Phone: 2090 5577

Website: http://www.smb.museum

Berliner Dom Berliner Dom - Berlin Cathedral Review

Not one of the oldest churches anywhere, the Berliner Dom was built in 1894, the third church of substance to occupy the grounds. In the catacombs are buried many of the Hohenzollern dynasty, the major and minor figures alike and together with many of those who died as children. This church is a very pretty church, decorated with mosaics and decorations of all types, uncommon in the Protestant religions. If you like cute churches, you should like this one. There is a small charge to enter.

Address: Karl-Liebknecht-Straße, Berlin-Mitte

Directions: S-Bahn: Hackescher Markt

Phone: 202 69 -0

Website: http://www.berliner-dom.de

The Empty Tooth Ku-Damm - Kurfürstendamm Review

At the center of Kurfuerstendamm lies the of a ruined, Kaiser-era church that has been left unrepaired so that Germany will never forget the destruction of WWII. If I ever have to show George Bush around Berlin, this is where I'm taking him.

Address: Kurfürstendamm, B-Charlottenburg/ Wilmersdorf

Directions: U-Bahn: Kurfürstendamm