Landmarks in Berlin

Brandenburg Gate

1791 · Carl Gotthard Langhans

A neoclassical arch crowned by a bronze quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses driven by a goddess, sculpted by Johann Gottfried Schadow.

The current gate replaced a former city gate that had marked the start of the road from Berlin to Brandenburg an der Havel, once the seat of the Margraviate of Brandenburg. King Frederick William II of Prussia commissioned its neoclassical replacement, built between 1788 and 1791 to designs by Carl Gotthard Langhans. It stands in the Mitte district at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, facing Pariser Platz, with the Reichstag building a block to the north and the Tiergarten park beyond.

• During Berlin's Cold War division, the gate served as a checkpoint on the border between East and West Berlin.

Photo: Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Berlin TV Tower

1969 · Hermann Henselmann

The tallest structure in Germany at 368 metres, it carries an observation deck and revolving restaurant at around 203 metres and remains visible across most of the city's outer districts, standing above the surrounding rooftops.

Built between 1965 and 1969 by the government of the former German Democratic Republic, the tower served as both a working broadcast facility and a statement of communist state power. It rises next to Alexanderplatz in the Mitte district and, at 368 metres including its antenna, is the tallest structure in Germany and the third-tallest in the European Union — when finished it ranked as the fourth-tallest freestanding structure in the world, behind only the Empire State Building and the John Hancock Center. It carries radio and television transmitters alongside a public observation deck and a revolving restaurant.

• Internally it is known simply as Fernmeldeturm 32, a technical designation that gives no hint of its role as a Cold War symbol.
• It stands eight metres taller than the Trbovlje Power Station but half a metre shorter than the Riga Radio and TV Tower, making it one of the European Union's four tallest structures.
• It rises more than 220 metres higher than Berlin's older Radio Tower, built in the 1920s in the western part of the city.

Photo: Joseolgon (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Reichstag Building

1894 · Paul Wallot

A Neo-Renaissance government building on the Platz der Republik, on the river's left bank in the Tiergarten district, one block north of the Brandenburg Gate. Its 19th-century exterior survived a 1995–1999 renovation that turned it back into a working parliament.

Built between 1884 and 1894 to plans by Paul Wallot, the Neo-Renaissance building on Platz der Republik housed the legislature of the German Empire and later the Weimar Republic. A fire in 1933 gutted it, and further damage came during the Battle of Berlin in the Second World War. Standing afterward in West Berlin, unusable as a parliament for either German state, it was only partially modernised in the 1950s before Norman Foster's full redesign of 1995 to 1999 made it the seat of the reunified Bundestag.

• The 1933 fire that gutted the building helped entrench the Nazi regime, and the legislature relocated to the nearby Kroll Opera House rather than repair it.
• Because it stood in West Berlin, neither the Federal Republic nor East Germany could use the restored building as an actual seat of parliament for decades.

Photo: Jörg Braukmann (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Berlin Cathedral

1905 · Julius Carl Raschdorff

It is the largest Protestant church in Germany, standing on Museum Island at the Lustgarten. A large central Sermon Church is flanked by a smaller Baptismal and Matrimonial Church on its south side — its northern twin was demolished in 1975 — while the Hohenzollern dynastic crypt fills almost the entire basement.

Built between 1894 and 1905 to designs by Julius Raschdorff in Renaissance and Baroque Revival styles, on the order of Emperor William II, the church replaced several earlier structures on the same site, the earliest a 15th-century castle chapel for the Berlin Palace. It stands at the Lustgarten on Museum Island and doubles as a dynastic tomb for the House of Hohenzollern, one of Europe's most important. Bombing in the Second World War damaged it; the interior was restored by 2002, and restoration of the historic exterior is still under discussion.

• Its north wing, the Memorial Church, was demolished by East German authorities in 1975 and was never rebuilt.
• The Hohenzollern crypt beneath it covers almost the whole basement and ranks among Europe's most significant dynastic tombs.

Photo: Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de (CC BY-SA 3.0 de)

Charlottenburg Palace

1699 · Johann Arnold Nering

A large Baroque palace with Rococo interiors, fronted by a formal garden that runs back into woodland with a belvedere, a mausoleum, a theatre and a pavilion. Badly damaged in the Second World War, it has since been reconstructed.

The palace originated as a modest country house begun at the end of the 17th century, designed by Johann Arnold Nering, and grew over the 18th century into one of the largest palaces in the world, expanded chiefly for Frederick the Great by architects including Johann Friedrich Eosander von Göthe, Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff and Carl Gotthard Langhans. Its Baroque and Rococo interiors sit behind a formal garden bordered by woodland, with a belvedere, a mausoleum, a theatre and a pavilion. Severely damaged in the Second World War, the palace and its grounds have since been reconstructed.

• Though it grew into one of the largest palaces in the world, its footprint began as a comparatively modest country house.

Photo: Arek N. (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Neue Nationalgalerie

1968 · Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

A steel-and-glass pavilion with a flat black roof plate 1.8 metres thick, held up by only eight cruciform columns set back from the corners so its glass walls appear almost unsupported; the exhibition hall sits three flights of steps above street level, with three-quarters of the museum's real gallery space hidden below ground.

Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and opened in 1968, the museum's ground-level pavilion is a glass hall crowned by a single square black steel roof plate, held up by only eight cruciform columns set back from the corners so the glazed façade beneath a cantilever seems barely supported. Mostly an entrance and special-exhibition space, this hall sits above three-quarters of the museum, including the permanent collection, library and offices, below ground. The design grew out of an unbuilt office project for a Cuban rum company. Renovated by David Chipperfield, the museum closed in 2015 and reopened in 2021.

• Mies originally conceived the entrance hall for very large artworks, imagining a work such as Picasso's Guernica as an element of the space itself.
• He later refused to redesign the half-buried lower level, arguing it would ruin the proportions of the pavilion above, which he considered a modern temple.
• The entrance pavilion's polished granite floor reflects so much light that it made curating exhibitions notoriously difficult.

Photo: abbilder (CC BY 4.0)

New Synagogue

1859–1866 · Eduard Knoblauch

The surviving reconstruction is essentially a street-facing shell: a polychrome brick façade with sculpted terracotta and coloured glazed brick leads to an entrance beneath a central gilded-ribbed dome flanked by two smaller pavilion domes, but the deep prayer hall that once stood behind it, seating 3,000, was never rebuilt.

Eduard Knoblauch designed this synagogue, built between 1859 and its inauguration in 1866 in the presence of Count Otto von Bismarck; after Knoblauch's death in 1865, Friedrich August Stüler completed construction. Its Moorish style, recalling the Alhambra, made it Germany's largest synagogue, seating 3,000. It survived Kristallnacht in 1938, when a police officer drove off arsonists, but Allied bombing during 1943-44 gutted the building and much was later demolished. What stands today reconstructs only the ruined street frontage, entrance, dome and towers, stopping short of where the original prayer hall began.

• The synagogue hosted a public violin concert by Albert Einstein in 1930.
• The main prayer hall was seized by the German Army in 1940 and used to store military uniforms.
• Because Nazi law barred Jewish musicians from ordinary concert halls, synagogues including this one hosted permitted performances of Jewish works, among them a 1938 staging of the first opera on Hebrew themes.

Photo: Rohieb (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Checkpoint Charlie

The best-known crossing point through the Berlin Wall, linking East and West Berlin during the Cold War. Soviet and American tanks faced off here during the 1961 Berlin Crisis, and John F. Kennedy visited the site on 26 June 1963.

City Palace

The main residence of the Electors of Brandenburg, Kings of Prussia and German Emperors from 1443 to 1918, renovated in Prussian Baroque style between 1689 and 1713. Damaged by Allied bombing in World War II, it was razed entirely by East German authorities in 1950.

Jewish Museum

The largest Jewish museum in Europe, opened in 2001 across 3,500 square metres of exhibition space. Two of its three buildings were purpose-built by architect Daniel Libeskind, and by December 2017 the museum had drawn more than eleven million visitors.

Philharmonie

A concert hall on the edge of the Tiergarten and home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, part of the Kulturforum complex near Potsdamer Platz. It comprises a 2,440-seat Grand Hall and a 1,180-seat Chamber Music Hall, added roughly twenty years later in the 1980s.

Federal Chancellery

The official seat and residence of the Chancellor of Germany, built as part of the government's move from Bonn to Berlin. Designed by Axel Schultes and Charlotte Frank, it forms part of the 'Federal Ribbon' of government buildings in the Spreebogen.

Neues Museum

Built between 1843 and 1855 in Neoclassical and Renaissance Revival styles, the major work of architect Friedrich August Stüler. Damaged in World War II and left to decay under East Germany, it was restored from 1999 to 2009 by David Chipperfield.

Alte Nationalgalerie

Built between 1862 and 1876 to plans by Friedrich August Stüler and Johann Heinrich Strack, in Neoclassical and Renaissance Revival styles. Its outdoor staircase carries a memorial to King Frederick William IV, and the gallery now holds paintings and sculpture from the 19th century.

Altes Museum

Built between 1825 and 1830 to designs by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, considered a major work of German Neoclassical architecture. It stands between the Berlin Cathedral, the Berlin Palace and the Zeughaus, and now houses the Antikensammlung antiquities collection.

Bode Museum

Built between 1898 and 1904 to designs by Ernst von Ihne in Baroque Revival style, formerly known as the Emperor Frederick Museum. A memorial to Emperor Frederick III once stood on its front square until East German authorities destroyed it.

Hamburger Bahnhof

The former terminus of the Berlin–Hamburg Railway, on Invalidenstraße in the Moabit district opposite the Charité hospital. It now serves as a contemporary art museum, the Museum für Gegenwart, part of the Berlin National Gallery.

Neue Wache

A former royal guardhouse built by Karl Friedrich Schinkel between 1816 and 1818, doubling as a memorial to the Liberation Wars. Since 1931 it has held Germany's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and it is known for its ceremonial changing of the guard.

State Opera

Built between 1741 and 1743 by order of Frederick the Great to designs by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff in the Palladian style. Damaged by Allied bombing in World War II, it was rebuilt from 1951 to 1955 and is called the world's oldest state opera.

Potsdamer Platz

A public square about a kilometre south of the Brandenburg Gate, named after the town of Potsdam and once the busiest traffic intersection in Europe. Destroyed in World War II, it lay desolate through the Cold War once the Berlin Wall bisected it.

Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great

A bronze equestrian statue of Frederick II of Prussia, created between 1839 and 1851 by Christian Daniel Rauch. Disassembled by East Germany in 1950 and moved to Sanssouci Park in 1963, it returned to its original spot on Unter den Linden in 1980.

Friedrichstadt-Palast

A revue theatre in Berlin's Mitte district on Friedrichstraße, also known as the Neuer Friedrichstadt-Palast. It replaced an earlier building, the Grosses Schauspielhaus, which stood near Schiffbauerdamm and was demolished in 1985.

Pergamon Museum

Built between 1910 and 1930 in the Stripped Classicism style by order of Emperor Wilhelm II, home to the Pergamon Altar and other antiquities before its 2023 closure. It is expected to remain closed for renovation until sometime between 2037 and 2043.

Postfuhramt

A historic mail delivery building from 1881, on Oranienburger Straße in the Spandauer Vorstadt area. Ottomar Anschütz gave the first showing of life-sized moving pictures there on 25 November 1894, and it later housed an art gallery from 2006 to 2012.

Dorotheenstadt Cemetery

A Protestant burial ground in Mitte dating to the late 18th century, next to the house where Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel spent their last years. It sits beside the French Cemetery of the Huguenots, established in 1780, with which it is sometimes confused.

Kronprinzenpalais

A former Royal Prussian residence on Unter den Linden, built in 1663 and renovated in Neoclassical style in 1857. Rebuilt after World War II bombing damage, it is where the German Reunification Treaty was signed in 1990.

Paul Löbe House

An office building of the German Bundestag on the southern edge of Spreebogenpark, on the site of the former Alsenviertel district. It is named after Paul Löbe, a Social Democratic politician who was President of the Reichstag.

Gemäldegalerie

First opened in 1830, with the current building completed in 1998 in the Kulturforum museum district west of Potsdamer Platz. It holds one of the world's leading collections of European paintings from the 13th to 18th centuries, including works by Dürer, Vermeer and Rembrandt.