116 Best Sights in Berlin, Germany

Every Berlin neighborhood has a Heimatmuseum, which literally translates as “homeland museum” and which acts as a repository for local lore and history. Most are dusty, ill-frequented places, but not the Museum Neukölln, which not only has gone above and beyond in terms of design and organization, but also might be Berlin’s most technologically advanced museum. Its permanent exhibition, “99 x Neukölln” is a wonderful grab bag of objects, both old and new, that represent the neighborhood, displayed in cases equipped with computer touch screens that tell each object's history, context, and connection to other objects in the room. The museum is on the grounds of Schloss Britz.

Across the parking lot from the Philharmonie, the Kulturforum's Musikinstrumenten-Museum has a fascinating collection of keyboard, string, wind, and percussion instruments. These are demonstrated during an 11 am tour on Saturday, which closes with a 35-minute Wurlitzer organ concert for an extra fee; there's also a 6 pm tour (with no concert) on Thursday.

After a trip out to Pfaueninsel or a long walk around the Wannsee lake, refuel at this café, which is also a garden and gourmet foods shop and an event space. In warm weather, grab a table in the courtyard.

Neuer Markt (New Market) square has baroque-style architecture similar to that of the Alter Markt square and a handful of the city’s best-preserved buildings, some of which date back to the 18th century.

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.

Berlin's famous sports attraction is the 1936 Olympic Stadium, which received a thorough modernization in 2004. American sprinter Jesse Owens won his stunning four gold medals here in 1936; these days, the local soccer team Hertha BSC is the star of the arena. The stadium hosted the World Cup soccer final match in July 2006 and served as a spectacular backdrop to the first European Athletics Championships in 2018. Different themed tours are offered throughout the year; one option is touring on your own with an audio guide, but only a guided tour will show you the nonpublic areas. Tours in English are offered less frequently, so check the website or call ahead for the schedule.

Long neglected in favor of Kreuzberg’s more hyped Landwehrkanal, the Wedding waterway known as the Panke is no less scenic. A walk along this tiny inlet, which flows north through Wedding after splitting off from the larger Spandauer Schifffahrtskanal above Hauptbahnhof, is something of an urban treasure hunt, revealing glimpses of the neighborhood’s history along with local street life and beautiful scenery. At Wiesenstrasse, where the regional train lines pass overhead, you’ll spot the ruins of an old brick pump station, now housing and artists' workshops. The canal runs just behind Brunnenplatz, flanked on both sides by the Uferhallen. Where the canal crosses Badstrasse you can spot one of the city’s most beautiful courtyards, including the Bibliothek am Luisenbad (a modern library hidden behind an ornamental facade). If you walk far enough, you'll arrive at a noticeable widening of the canal. This is the Franzosenbecken or French Basin, a pond so quiet and green, it seems easy to believe you’ve left the city behind. Start where the canal intersects with Schulzendorfer Strasse, not far from the Reinickendorfer Strasse U-bahn station, and head north.

Located 300 feet above Potsdamer Platz at the top of one of its tallest towers, the Panoramapunkt (Panoramic Viewing Point) not only features the world's highest-standing original piece of the Berlin Wall, but also a fascinating, multimedia exhibit about the dramatic history of Berlin's former urban center. A café and a sun terrace facing west make this open-air viewing platform one of the city's most romantic. Purchase a VIP ticket to bypass the elevator queues.

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.

Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm II whisked his mistresses away to this small island oasis on the Great Wannsee. Schloss Pfaueninsel, the small white palace, erected in 1794 according to the ruler's plans—and in accordance with the taste of the era—was built as a fake ruin. The simple building looks strangely cartoonlike; you can see the interior on half-hour tours. In the early 19th-century, garden architect Joseph Peter Lenné designed an English garden on the island, which ultimately became western Berlin's favorite summer getaway. The park, which is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is now a nature reseve.

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.

Back when this part of Neukölln was a Bohemian village, Richardplatz was its center, and today the square appears virtually untouched by time. Half-timber houses line one side, and some of the grandest turn-of-the-century apartment buildings face them on the other. It's worth exploring the lanes and alleyways running off the square and its extension, Richardstrasse; you’ll turn up some secret gardens and hidden buildings along the way. This square is the location of one of the city’s most charming Christmas markets, which takes place annually on the second weekend of Advent (usually either the first or second weekend in December): craftsmen and churches sell knitwear, candles, and all sorts of edible goodies under the light of old-fashioned gas lamps.

Nicknamed the "Rotes Rathaus" (Red Town Hall) for its redbrick design, the town hall was completed in 1869. Its most distinguishing features are its neo-Renaissance clock tower and frieze that depicts Berlin's history up to 1879 in 36 terra-cotta plaques, each 20 feet long. Climb the grand stairwell to view the coat-of-arms hall and a few exhibits. The entrance is inside the inner courtyard.

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

Built immediately after World War II, this monument stands as a reminder of the Soviet victory over the shattered German army in Berlin in May 1945. The Battle of Berlin was one of the deadliest on the European front. A hulking bronze statue of a soldier stands atop a marble plinth taken from Hitler's former Reichkanzlei (headquarters). The memorial is flanked by what are said to be the first two T-34 tanks to have fought their way into the city.

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.

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.

The Kulturforum's Staatsbibliothek is one of the largest libraries in Europe, and was one of the Berlin settings in Wim Wenders's 1987 film Wings of Desire.

In a city dotted with lakes, pools, and thermal baths, this is one of the most attractive public bathing spots, a neoclassical beauty built in 1914 and renovated in 2009. Even if you don’t plan on taking a dip, it’s worth a peek: the unremarkable, gray concrete exterior, which seems designed to ward off tourists, conceals two stunning swimming halls, their pristine pools lined with columns and decorated with elaborate mosaics and gargoyles spouting water. To make the most of it, get a day pass for the pools and multiple saunas. Monday is women-only day in the sauna and Sunday evenings are nude-only (FKK).

The huge Strandbad Wannsee attracts as many as 40,000 Berliners to its fine, sandy beach on summer weekends.

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.

The largest organized display of street art in the world, this museum features original creations from more than 100 street artists, including well-known names like Shepard Fairey. Outdoors you'll find transportable panels displaying 8,000-square-foot murals that can be rotated regularly.

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.