40 Best Sights in Mitte, Berlin

This redbrick museum includes exhibits on Berlin's history from the Ice Age to today. A permanent exhibit, BerlinZEIT, tells the story of Berlin and historical moments that have shaped the city through tales from the people who live there; features include a multimedia map of Berlin where you can hear about various neighborhoods and streets.

This meticulously restored landmark, built between 1859 and 1866, is an exotic amalgam of styles, the whole faintly Middle Eastern. Its bulbous, gilded cupola stands out in the skyline. When its doors opened, it was the largest synagogue in Europe, with 3,200 seats. The synagogue was damaged on November 9, 1938 (Kristallnacht—Night of the Broken Glass), when Nazi looters rampaged across Germany, burning synagogues and smashing the few Jewish shops and homes left in the country. It was destroyed by Allied bombing in 1943, and it wasn't until the mid-1980s that the East German government restored it. The effective exhibit on the history of the building and its congregants includes fragments of the original architecture and furnishings. Sabbath services are held in a modern addition.

One of many Berlin projects by the early-19th-century architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, this building served as both the Royal Prussian War Memorial (honoring the dead of the Napoleonic Wars) and the royal guardhouse until the kaiser abdicated in 1918. In 1931 it became a memorial to those who fell in World War I. Badly damaged in World War II, it was restored in 1960 by the East German state and rededicated as a memorial for the victims of militarism and fascism. After unification it regained its Weimar Republic appearance and was inaugurated as Germany's central war memorial. Inside is a copy of Berlin sculptor Käthe Kollwitz's Pietà, showing a mother mourning over her dead son. The inscription in front of it reads, "to the victims of war and tyranny."

One of Berlin’s heavy hitters, this Mitte gallery with a seemingly unpronounceable name (it’s actually the names of the two founders combined), has either represented or hosted shows by such art world luminaries as Olafur Eliasson, Ai Weiwei, Billy Childish, and Keith Edmier.

Renovated in the 1980s and a tad concrete-heavy as a result, this tiny quarter grew up around Berlin's oldest parish church, the medieval, twin-spire St. Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas's Church), dating from 1230 (though rebuilt in 1987) and now a museum. The adjacent Fischerinsel (Fisherman's Island) area was the heart of Berlin almost 800 years ago, and retains a bit of its medieval character. At Breite Strasse you'll find two of Berlin's oldest buildings: No. 35 is the Ribbeckhaus, the city's only surviving Renaissance structure, dating from 1624, and No. 36 is the early-baroque Marstall, built by Michael Matthais between 1666 and 1669. The area feels rather artificial, but draws tourists to its gift stores, cafés, and restaurants.

The 227-foot granite, sandstone, and bronze column is topped by a winged, golden goddess and has a splendid view of Berlin. It was erected in front of the Reichstag in 1873 to commemorate Prussia's military successes and then moved to the Tiergarten in 1938–39. You have to climb 270 steps up through the column to reach the observation platform, but the view is rewarding. The gold-tipped cannons surrounding the column are those the Prussians captured from the French in the Franco-Prussian War.

The green-patina dome is a striking feature of St. Hedwigs-Kathedrale. Begun in 1747, it was modeled after the Pantheon in Rome, and was the first Catholic church built in resolutely Protestant Berlin since the 16th-century Reformation. This was Frederick the Great's effort to appease Prussia's Catholic population after his invasion of Catholic Silesia (then Poland). A treasury lies inside.

This medieval church, one of the finest in Berlin, is best known for its late-Gothic, macabre fresco Der Totentanz (Dance of Death), which is in need of restoration. Tours on Tuesday at 2 pm highlight the fresco.

In West Berlin in 1963, John F. Kennedy surveyed the recently erected Berlin Wall and said, "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am one with the people of Berlin). And with that, he secured his fame throughout Germany. He's honored in this small but intriguing museum, which used to reside opposite the American embassy on Pariser Platz, but has since found a new home in the Ehemalige Jüdische Mädchenschule. With photographs, personal memorabilia, documents, and films, the collection traces the fascination JFK and the Kennedy clan evoked in Berlin and elsewhere.

The name of this historic Berlin thoroughfare, between the Brandenburg Gate and Schlossplatz, means "under the linden trees," and it was indeed lined with fragrant and beloved lindens until the 1930s. Imagine Berliners' shock when Hitler decided to fell the trees in order to make the street more parade-friendly. The grand boulevard began as a riding path that the royals used to get from their palace to their hunting grounds (now the central Berlin park called Tiergarten). It is once again lined with linden trees planted after World War II.