My husband and I will be spending 4 days in Berlin next month. He's a history buff who also loves fine art. Is it worthwhile to visit Potsdam? We know the historic significance, however is it worth taking time away from seeing the sights in Berlin?

Lodging question: Grand Hyatt or Adlon Kempinski? I know one is modern and the other is historic. I have read good reviews on both. Is the Hyatt well located for touring? Or do you have another hotel to suggest in this same class?

Restaurant recommendations please!

Actually, both the Hyatt and the Adlon are modern.
The Adlon is just built to look historic.
I'd always lean towards the Hyatt - but just personal preference. If you like it a bit stuffy, 'what the rest of the world thinks of as old Europe' then the Adlon might be better.
The major downside of the Adlon is that Unter den Linden boulevard still is (and will be for a few years) a major construction site for a new subway line.

For access to transport or to tour the city, the Hyatt is as well located in the very city center (just geographically, not as in most lively or important part of town) as the Adlon, if not a bit better.

Restaurants.. depends on what you like.. anything goes from Viennese Schnitzel to Sudanese Vegan.

The current "in" places (not necessarily or yet Michelin-starred places.. but the 'talk of town' restaurants):

Pauly Saal
Nobelhart & Schmutzig (beware: radical regional cuisine, a bit OTT for me)
Einsunternull
Dottir
Industry Standard
Martha's

less upscale/fancy..
world cuisine at Markthalle Neun in Kreuzberg district.
Neni @ 25Hours Hotel near the Zoo

all of the places can be googled when you use the name of the eatery and add berlin

I have been to Berlin five times...going again in July.

One can easily fill 4 days
( and more ) in Berlin , it is a big city with numerous places of interest.
See how your time goes.

I spent four nights in Berlin a couple of years ago. I'm also a big history buff. The World War II history in Berlin is a bit disappointing - because most of it is gone, really, having largely been destroyed by Allied bombs. You can imagine Third Reich stuff from remaining building foundations etc. and you can stand by the parking lot above where Hitler's bunker was where he committed suicide at the end of the war, but it's not particularly impressive.

I enjoyed the Cold War stuff much more. Most of the Berlin Wall is gone too, but you can still see lots of reminders and pieces of it around the city.

I did take the day trip to Potsdam, mostly because I wanted to see the Cecilienhof Palace (really a big mansion) where the famous Potsdam Conference was held at the end of World War II. The mansion is nothing special and the exhibits kind of a shrug...but the room where the "big three" met has been largely preserved. You can see the round table the three leaders sat around with their advisers. I got chills standing there imagining Truman, Stalin, and Churchill (or Attlee) going at it, hashing things out through their interpreters. That alone made the visit worthwhile, for me.

I also briefly walked around a few of Fredrick the Great's huge old palaces in Potsdam but did not go inside (I've seen a lot of palaces in Europe...they aren't really my thing). And I did a which walk around Potsdam's little town center. Cute but forgettable.

I thoroughly enjoyed a day at Potsdam's Sanssouci -- unforgettable! Whether that means you should fit it in or not is YOUR call. You'll see some wonderful things no matter what you choose.

Berlin has so much to do and see. Take historic walking tours to learn about the WWII and Cold War histories.
We went to Potsdam and liked the town. The gardens behind Sans Souci are a nice place to take a walk. The palace isn't large and didn't take long long to see but I would probably have skipped the teip,out there if I realized how much more there was to see in Berlin.
We stayed at the Adlon, quiet rooms are available overlooking the courtyards. We walked everywhere from it's very convenient location.
Nicely appointed rooms and public spaces. Breakfast is good but it should be for €44. There are many less expensive breakfast options nearby.
We are regular guests at Hyatts but don't know about their Berlin property.

"He's a history buff who also loves fine art. "

I've no idea what a "history buff" is. But Berlin - by the standard of most North Atlantic cities - is extraordinarily devoid of history.

The city itself didn't have any worth speaking of till the mid-19th century. We, our then allies and the region's postwar Russian puppet government destroyed most of 19th century Berlin between 1940 and 1970 - though the city's exceptional museum collections, and the Victorian buildings housing them, have been well preserved or restored.

The modern result in reasonably central Berlin is a set of fabulous conventional museums of other countries' artefacts and artworks, more museums and memorials of the Nazi and Cold War eras than most of us can possibly deal with and an extraordinary collection of very recent, frequently private-enterprise or foundation funded, museums and exhibition spaces - often in visually arresting buildings.

Unless you believe history started in 1920, central Berlin is - by the standards of London, Paris or New York - extraordinarily devoid of historical interest. Oddly, for example, it has a museum of daily life in the DDR (or is it two?), but there's no Berlin equivalent of the London Museum or the Museum of the City of New York, chronicling the history of the city as inhabited by those fortunate enough to have avoided Russian imperialism. I failed to find any walks covering pre-20th century Berlin, though there appear to be millions about the city after Hitler took over (though I might have just not been looking properly). In spite of endless cutting-edge bars, it's astonishingly difficult to find a decent pub in most of Berlin, too.

If you find this all presents a peculiarly filtered view of the city, going out into the suburbs and extra-urbs (Berlin's regional public transport system is close to fabulous and extraordinarily cheap) is pretty much the only way of getting any kind of insight into the Brandenburg area as it was before the 19th century.

True, it's almost entirely about how the super-toffs lived, and I struggled to find any equivalent of the medieval churches or cottages Western Europe is awash with: Berlin really did seem to spend most of the past thousand years beyond the pale of Western civilisation (or were we and the Russians just very effective demolition contractors?) And, if you're happy with Berlin's blinkered definition of history, there's more than enough in the centre to keep you busy for 40 or 400 days, not just 4.

But don't expect the endless serendipities you're forever bumping into strolling round Paris, London, New York or Chicago.

flanner is spot on.
Berlin had been for the majority of its life an irrelevant settlement in an irrelevant part of the German-speaking territories of Central Europe.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einwoh...population.svg

Nevertheless, there ARE museums for the city's past and more present history:
http://www.en.stadtmuseum.de/
They are usually just not on the regular tourist's agenda (and I would not even say that they should be) who is usually busy to cover what can be seen on the Museum Island plus the other better-known museums in the city.

By nature, the city is somewhat non-typical for Germany as it is more a city of "now" than "back then". We also don't care much about building codes and "precious old buildings".
There is an abundance of pre-war (WWI) buildings, though. But mostly in residential neighborhoods, which do not offer much else for visitors. And, after all, it's just houses from the 1890s/1900s - so nothing that spectacular.

My first day in Berlin ( after spending time in lovely Prague ) I though...
"what a blah city."
But after a few days ( museums, galleries, visits to different areas )and stopping to think about the distraction in the war and division of the country, I became more intrigued .
The place " grew " on me to the point of repeated visits
( including trips to Hamburg, Potsdam, Dresden and Leipzig).

Plus, the five star hotels are less expensive than in most European capitals
and the beer is excellent.

thought

Spent 4 days in Berlin in 2014... the highlight was the festival of lights, which I never realized coincided with our visit until we got there! (it is in mid-October). Very beautiful.

One thing I really enjoyed was a walking food tour... (the Original Berlin Food Tour with Bastian)... there were 9 people on the tour and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. it was a fun way to spend a rainy afternoon and we got to taste super yummy currywurst mmmm

The hotel we stayed at was Casa Camper. Very quirky and modern, 4*, and it had the best shower I've ever taken in my life.

Enjoy Berlin!

Yesterday is "history"

If you are at all interested in 20th century European history, Berlin is near the top of the list.

Serendipity is in the (black) eye of the beholder, since one apparently bumps into them.

Sorry to hijack your thread but I was wondering wberr in Germany one can still see remnants from WWII. Apparently, Berlin is not the best, having been razed to the ground.