19 Best Sights in Berlin, Germany

Talk about site-specific art: all the modern art, photography, and architecture models and plans here, created between 1870 and the present, were made in Berlin (or in the case of architecture competition models, intended for the city). Russians, secessionists, Dadaists, and expressionists all had their day in Berlin, and individual works by Otto Dix, George Grosz, and Georg Baselitz, as well as artists' archives such as the Dadaist Hannah Höch's, are highlights. Special exhibitions are usually well attended and quite worthwhile.

This magnificent palazzo-like exhibition hall first opened in 1881, and once housed Berlin's Arts and Crafts Museum. Its architect, Martin Gropius, was the great-uncle of Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus architect who also worked in Berlin. The international, changing exhibits on art and culture have included Painting in the US and USSR 1960–1990; a Yayoi Kusama retrospective; Art, Craft, and Concept in Berlin; and works from Korean artist Lee Bul.

Using a mix of historical objects, art exhibitions, interactive exhibits, and virtual reality, the history of Germany's Jews from the Middle Ages through today is chronicled in the museum's permanent collection (revamped in 2020), from prominent historical figures to the evolution of laws regarding Jews' participation in civil society. A few of the exhibits document the Holocaust itself, but this museum celebrates Jewish life and history far more than it focuses on the atrocities committed during World War II. An attraction in itself is the highly conceptual building, designed by Daniel Libeskind, where various physical "voids" in the oddly constructed and intensely personal modern wing of the building represent the idea that some things can and should never be exhibited when it comes to the Holocaust. ANOHA Children's World, across from the main museum, contains a 7-meter (23-foot) tall circular wooden arc with more than 150 sculptured animals inside, all made from found objects.

Topographie des Terrors is partially an open-air exhibit, fully exposed to the elements, and partially a stunning indoor exhibition center, where you can view photos and documents explaining the secret state police and intelligence organizations that planned and executed Nazi crimes against humanity. The fates of both victims and perpetrators are given equal attention here. The outdoor cellar remains of the Nazis' Reich Security Main Office (composed of the SS, SD, and Gestapo) uses photos, newspaper articles, and other documents to examine National Socialist policy in Berlin between 1933 and 1945.

The Berlin branch of a swish London gallery, Blain|Southern occupies a breathtaking loft space that once housed the printing presses of Tagesspiegel, the daily Berlin newspaper. Since opening in 2010, the gallery has highlighted star artists like Douglas Gordon, Lawrence Weiner, and Jannis Kounellis.

A must if you're traveling with children, this museum will enchant anyone who's interested in technology or fascinated with trains, planes, and automobiles. Set in the remains of Anhalter Bahnhof's industrial yard and enhanced with a glass-enclosed wing, the museum has several floors of machinery, including two airplane rooms on the upper floors crowned with a "Rosinenbomber," one of the beloved airplanes that delivered supplies to Tempelhof Airport during the Berlin Airlift of 1948. Don't miss the train sheds, which are like three-dimensional, walkable timelines of trains throughout history, and the historical brewery, which has a great rooftop view of today's trains, U-bahn lines U1 and U2, converging at the neighboring Gleisdreieck station.

In March 2012, Romanian gallery Plan B moved into an industrial space deep within the Tagesspiegel building complex. This is the place to see offbeat Eastern European art.

Bortolozzi consistently spots and cultivates the hottest young talent in the city (like Danh Vo), showing their work in a quirky, wood-paneled space.

Founded in 1841, this is the oldest artist association in Germany. Its lavish townhouse gallery spaces often highlight the work of its 120-odd artist members.

Germans love their thermal baths and saunas, and this is one of the classiest around. The dramatic main thermal pool lies under a vaulted ceiling, where glowing lights and soothing music that can be heard underwater enhance a feeling of calm. In addition to several saunas and a steam room, take advantage of the outdoor hot tub in the enclosed courtyard, best at night under stars. There's a bar and a healthy snack menu, just in case all that relaxation leaves you hungry. Full nudity is to be expected here, even in coed areas.

Just steps from the famous crossing point between the two Berlins, the somewhat homespun and slightly disorganized Wall Museum–House at Checkpoint Charlie presents visitors with the story of the wall and, even more riveting, the stories of those who escaped through, under, and over it. This border crossing for non-Germans was manned by the Soviet military in East Berlin's Mitte district and, several yards south, by the U.S. military in West Berlin's Kreuzberg district. Today the touristy intersection consists of a replica of an American guardhouse and signposting, plus cobblestones that mark the old border. The museum reviews the events leading up to the wall's construction and, with original tools and devices, plus recordings and photographs, shows how East Germans escaped to the West (one of the most ingenious contraptions was a miniature submarine). Exhibits about human rights and paintings interpreting the wall round out the experience. Monday, when the state museums are closed, can be particularly crowded.

The Museum der Dinge or “Museum of Things” is exactly that—a collection of stuff that represents the best, the worst, and the quirkiest in 20th-century and contemporary design. Although there are a lot of things here, a museum for hoarders this is not. The objects come from the archive of the Deutsches Werkbund (DWB), a hundred-year-old, quasi-utopian consortium that sought perfection in everyday construction and design. The thousands of things are housed in a former factory building on Kreuzberg’s busy Oranienstrasse and arranged beautifully by color, material, or use. Browsing the exhibition, one is hit not only by the sheer volume of what was created in the last century, but also by the impressive range—Soviet kitsch toys stand near mobile phones, delicate dishware next to industrial tools. Don’t miss the so-called Frankfurt Kitchen a space-saving prototype kitchen from the 1920s that was meant to be replicated over 10,000 times in various housing estates.

Like the more glamorous Tempelhof Park, Gleisdreieck, one of Berlin's newest green spaces, was until recently neglected space—in this case, abandoned and overgrown WWII railyards. In between the Kreuzberg and Schöneberg neighborhoods, the park includes playgrounds and open meadows, paths for running and biking, pits for skateboarding, and even a community garden. Most interesting, however, are the remnants of the park’s past: train tracks, signs, and switches have been left intact (if a bit rusty), making this park an urban paradise of the sort Berliners love—one with history hiding in the grass.

Billed as a creative center, this complex of shops, offices, and meeting spaces on Moritzplatz is a step toward revitalizing the once-shabby and still fairly empty square. Its unusual, hulking shape seems designed to attract attention; it may also inspire some local disdain. But one visit is all it takes to appreciate how well the complex represents the Berlin aesthetic: small and mid-size companies share space with craft and designer workshops, an art bookstore, a café, an outpost of the beloved kitchenware company Coledampf’s, and even a kindergarten.

This charming urban garden on the bustling Kreuzberg hub of Moritzplatz perfectly encapsulates the Berlin DIY spirit. Starting with little more than 100 wooden packing crates and an idea, the founders of the Prinzessinnengarten have created an entirely movable source of fruit, vegetables, flowers, and herbs. The café on the premises serves a daily menu of small dishes sourced directly from the garden, while a series of lectures and events facilitate interaction between gardening experts and local enthusiasts. Whether you come just to look, to taste, or to grab a bunch of gardening tools and dig in, the gardens offer a chance to stop, breathe, and enjoy a bit of open space in one of the city’s most densely packed quarters.

In what was once a mattress factory, Patricia Kohl and Salome Sommer show mostly young, international artists.

Hidden away in a part of Kreuzberg most visitors don’t reach, St. Agnes, a Catholic church turned contemporary art gallery, is hardly a looker—unless you like the bulky, boxy concrete shapes that characterize Brutalist architecture. Gallerist Johann König took over the 1960s building in 2012 and opened it as an exhibition center, which was redesigned again in 2015 by Arno Brandlhuber to include additional gallery space for the König Galerie.

Recently joining Sommer + Kohl's courtyard (in the empire owned by Scottish artist Douglas Gordon, whose studio is upstairs), Supportico Lopez is a curator's and art-lover's dream. No wonder: it started as a curatorial project in Naples, and reflects curators Gigiotto Del Vecchio and Stefania Palumbo’s vision.

A neighborhood favorite, the small Viktoriapark offers one of the highest lookout points in the city center—and definitely the best place to get a free panoramic view. Beginning at the edge of the park, all trails gradually slope upward; at the top stands an elaborate cast-iron monument designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in 1821 to commemorate the so-called liberation wars against Napoléon of 1813–15. On the way back down, take the path heading to Kreuzbergstrasse, next to which a lovely little waterfall trips and burbles over rocks and boulders—a favorite splashing spot for local children.