Destination
Type of Activity
Editors Pick
Read MoreBerlin Wall Memorial
The Berlin Wall Memorial was completed in the summer of 2011, the 50-year anniversary of the building of the wall in 1961. It’s an incredibly well-conceived exhibition and a good spot to gain an overview of what the wall was,...
Read MoreBerlin Zoo & Aquarium
Thanks to polar bear Knut, the Berlin zoo is now world renowned. It’s a massive place with some 17,000 animals. It’s a lovely place to tour with kids, especially on a sunny day when you can meander to Café am...
Read MoreBerliner Unterwelten
The rich underground world of Berlin can be explored on the special guided tours (some in English) with this non-profit organization. Each offers a fascinating glimpse into a world normally hidden to the public, making this underground exploration particularly fascinating...
Read MoreCharlottenburg Palace
For an escape from Berlin’s über-modern present, spend a few hours wandering around Schloss Charlottenburg. Built in the late 1600s by the future King Frederick I as a country retreat for his wife, Sophia Charlotte, the palace is the largest...
Courtesy Visit BerlinRead MoreEast Side Gallery
The largest remaining section of the Berlin Wall, the East Side Gallery runs along the banks of the Spree River for more than a half a mile. It features murals—including one with the Brezhnev/Honecker kiss—by more than 100 international artists....
Read MoreEhemalige Jüdische Mädchenschule
The former Jewish Girls’ School in Berlin’s Mitte neighborhood is a must-stop address for art connoisseurs and foodies. Under its roof can be found two of the most respected commercial galleries, the contemporary Eigen + Art and photography-focused Camera Work,...
Read MoreEigen + Art
It seems silly to pick a single gallery out of Berlin’s trove of contemporary art, but Eigen+Art is an important one in the cultural firmament. It’s run by Gerd Harry Lybke, an early proponent of the now-famous Neue Leipziger Schule,...
Read MoreHamburger Bahnhof
An important contemporary-art institution in Berlin is the Hamburger Bahnhof. Built in 1845 as a train station, it is now home to a permanent Joseph Beuys exhibition and the Friedrich Christian Flick collection, which the controversial art patron lent the...
Read MoreHelmut Newton Foundation
A few months before his death in 2004, renowned fashion photographer and Berlin native Helmut Newton donated 1,000 of his images to the Helmut Newton Foundation. It’s now a museum that shows his work, in addition to select temporary exhibits.
Read MoreIndagare Tour: Behind the Scenes Berlin
Use the perks of being an Indagare member by setting up a strategic itinerary with our specialists who can offer incredible historic walking tours, art tours of the classic and contemporary scenes (including entrée to some of Germany’s most prominent...
Read MoreIndagare Tours: Private Dining Venues
Berlin is big on the hidden, the underground, the cool supper club behind unmarked doors. Indagare members can contact our team for help organizing a special dinner at such venues as Zagreus Projekt, an art space that offers catered dinners...
Read MoreIndagare Tours: Sammlung Boros
A must for contemporary art fans who have already toured the Hamburger Bahnhof, the private Sammlung Boros is housed in a former bunker (which has, of course this being Berlin, also served as a tropical fruit storage and a techno...
Read MoreJuedisches Museum (Jewish Museum)
The largest of its kind in Europe, the Jewish Museum Berlin traces Jewish history from the end of the Roman Empire to the present. Daniel Libeskind designed the striking building and it commands at least as much attention as the...
Read MoreKäthe Kollwitz Museum
This small museum is dedicated to Käthe Kollwitz, a German painter and sculptor whose powerful oeuvre powerfully addresses poverty and war (she was alive for both world wars, losing her youngest son in the first one and her grandson in...
Read MoreKicken Berlin
This gallery is owned by renowned dealers Rudolf Kicken and his wife Annette. The focus is on works of the 20th century, particularly the 1920s and 1930s, including German and Czech avant-garde artists like Bauhaus, Man Ray, Moholy-Nagy and Rodchenko....
Read MoreKunsthaus Dahlem Museum
The Kunsthaus Dahlem museum, opened in summer 2015, exhibits postwar modernist art from East and West Germany. The space was gifted to the sculptor Arno Breker by the Nazi party during World War II, and was later used as artists’...
Read MoreKW Institute of Contemporary Art
Located in a former margarine factory, this cultural venue (part exhibition, part event space) is a great spot to get your contemporary art bearings and see a lot of different shows all at once (KW often collaborates with New York’s...
Read MoreMemorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
More than 2,700 concrete slabs filling a space the size of four football fields make up this visually profound and sobering memorial. Designed by architect Peter Eisenman and located at the edge of the Tiergarten, the monument is built on...
Read MoreMichael Fuchs
One of the new galleries in the Jewish Girls’ School complex features the works of German and international artists, including Johannes Albers, Anderas Golder, Gunther Forg, Simon English and Leiko Ikemura.
Read MoreMonsterkabinett
“Totally Berlin” is how my guide described this whimsical, grungy and fun excursion into an imaginary dreamscape, in a cellar at the end of a graffiti-clad alley. The “monsters” in question are huge mechanical creatures, made by the art cooperative...
Read MoreMuseumsinsel (Museum Island)
The Museumsinsel (Museum Island) is a not-to-be-missed complex of five world-class museums on an island in the Spree River. Conceived by King Friedrich Wilhelm III in the early 1800s and damaged during World War II, the Museumsinsel was designated a...
Read MoreNeue Nationalgalerie
Note: This museum is currently closed for renovations and expected to reopen in 2019.
Read MorePfaueninsel (Peacock Island)
This island nature reserve and UNESCO World Heritage site is one of those incredible Berlin discoveries you would never expect to find near an urban area. Just a forty-minute drive from the center of the city, in the Wannsee district,...
Read MoreReichstag
The Reichstag—the city’s German Parliament building with Sir Norman Foster’s landmark dome—is a must-see. Here’s the trick to avoiding the sometimes hour-long line: make a reservation for a late breakfast or afternoon tea at the Käfer, its roof-garden restaurant (you...
Read MoreSammlung Hoffmann
Lucio Fontana and Frank Stella are among the artists represented at Sammlung Hoffmann, a private contemporary-art collection displayed on two floors of a former factory. Open Saturday by appointment.
Read MoreSee a Performance
With its wealth of world-renowned orchestras, theater, dance and opera companies, Berlin has a stunningly vibrant performing arts scene. Due to the fact that East and West both had their own dedicated venues, there’s a confusing number of places to...
Read MoreTempelhof Freiheit
One of the most significant examples of Nazi architecture is the massive Tempelhof airport built on the edge of Berlin in the 1930s. After World War II, it was also the site of the Berlin Air Lift drops. The airport was...
Read MoreThe Deserted Room
This haunting bronze statue by Karl Biedermann in a leafy square north of Mitte is a memorial to the many Jewish families who were deported to camps on the Night of the Pogroms in 1938. The kitchen table and overturned...
Read MoreThe Story of Berlin
Complete with a “time tunnel” and movie-set-like exhibition rooms, the Story of Berlin sounds a little Vegas (at least by Berlin standards). But it’s a great museum if you’re traveling with kids (or even if you’re not) and want to...
Read MoreTiergarten Park
Not quite as big as Central Park but still a hefty 520 acres, the Tiergarten is Berlin’s major green expanse with numerous lakes, monuments and jogging and walking paths. It’s best explored on a bike (contact Indagare for our favorite...
Read MoreTopography of Terror
This powerful outdoor exhibition of the rise and fall of the Third Reich is located on the haunting (and probably haunted) site of the former Gestapo headquarters. The exhibition is comprehensive and at times overwhelming, but the fact that you...
Read MoreTurkish Market
Infusing Berlin with a little flavor of Istanbul, the Turkish Market is home to vendors selling delicious prepared foods, spices, herbs, teas, produce, fabrics and art. The variety of Turkish delicacies (think gozleme, kalamata olives and feta-stuffed grape leaves), unique...
