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Friedrichstrasse Review

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Friedrichstrasse

Address: Friedrichstr. 101, Berlin | Map It
Phone: 030/4799-7499

Category: Neighborhoods/Streets
Location: Mitte: Unter den Linden to Alexanderplatz

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Fodor's Review:

The once-bustling street of cafés and theaters of prewar Berlin has risen from the rubble of war and Communist neglect to reclaim the crowds with shopping emporiums.

Heading south from the train station Friedrichstrasse, you'll pass hotels, bookstores, and, south of Unter den Linden, the car showrooms of the Lindencorso and several upscale clothing stores. Standing at the corner of Französische Strasse (meaning "French Street" for the nearby French Huguenot cathedral) is the French department store Galeries Lafayette (Friedrichstr. 76-78. 030/209-480). French architect Jean Nouvel included an impressive steel-and-glass funnel at its center, which is surrounded by four floors of expensive clothing and luxuries as well as a food department with counters offering French cuisine.

North of the train station you will see the now rejuvenated heart of the entertainment center of Berlin's Roaring Twenties. The ugly Friedrichstadtpalast, Europe's largest variety theater, may be just a poor modern copy of its former glamorous past. A few steps away, the meticulously restored Admiralspalast,on the other hand, is the successful rebirth of a glittering Jazz Age entertainment temple. Reopened with a hotly debated production of Brecht's Threepenny Opera, it now houses two stages, a club, an upscale Italian restaurant, and a spa right above a natural hot spring.

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