DAS CAPITAL
Jeremy Armstrong enjoys the rich history and art of Berlin during a weekend trip with his German-learning son
There are heartrending stories of those who died
Since I’ve spent so much time in Germany’s magnificent capital city I may get ‘‘Ich bin ein Berliner’’ stamped on my passport! To paraphrase the Samuel Johnson line about London: if a man is tired of Berlin, he is tired of life.
In one long weekend you can enjoy its fantastic sights – the green parks, the many elegant shops, restaurants and bars, an impressive selection of museums, attractions, whistle-stop tours and nightlife.
But it is the history of the place which makes it something special.
Berlin has endured more in its recent past than most capitals see over centuries.
You experience that in many different ways and it can never be fully uncovered, with a different part of its story revealed on every visit.
For this one my son Alex and I flew with easyjet from Manchester and were based in what was formerly East Berlin.
The idea was to take in as much of the history as we could and speak as much of the language as possible as Alex launches into his final year of A-level German. We were based in the Park Inn by Radisson on Alexanderplatz, appropriately enough, which gave us impressive views of the capital and the landmark TV Tower – an ideal base because so many of the sights are within walking distance.
Close to the Berlin Wall, the city’s famous Museum Island is on the doorstep; the Reichstag, the old and new Parliament buildings are not much further afield, and you can try an array of tours, booked in a tourist office in the main reception.
A Berlin Welcome Card is a must as it gives you unlimited use of all public transport around the city for €10 per person a day, and an array of benefits including reduced entry fees to many of the main visitor attractions. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that many of the best museums offer free entry for under-18s, including the Pergamon – which offers a magnificent collection of ancient art – the prestigious Gemaldegalerie and Alte Nationalgalerie.
The hop-on, hop-off city bus tour takes you around major attractions and landmarks. In a couple of hours, and for around €20, you get a great idea of the layout of Berlin, the
sights you will want to see and the areas you might want to visit.
The audio guide means you learn all about the history of the Brandenburg Gate, now a symbol of German unity, but for years the spot where East met West at the Berlin Wall, plus Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie and its impressive tales of Great Escapes from the DDR, alongside the heart-rending pictures and stories of those who lost their lives.
Then there are the shops and thriving street life of the Kurfurstendamm, including giant department store Kadewe, which offers hundreds of varieties of sausage and cheese on its delicatessen floor.
City guide and map in hand, it’s also a great place to see on foot.
A stroll down Unter den Linden, one of Europe’s most impressive thoroughfares, takes you from the green open spaces of the Tiergarten, to the Parliament building – which bears the legend Zu Dem Volke (For the People) – with its revamped, glass dome, past the University and the square where the destruction of 20,000 ‘Jewish’ books marked the dark early days of Hitler’s rise to power. By the beautiful Humboldt University building, the Museum of German history takes visitors from the birth of the German language and the formation of its borders, through the First and Second World Wars, including the Nazis’ rapid rise to power.
You can see so much in a day on foot but if you get the weather, a bike tour means you see even more of what Berlin has to offer.
Berlin on Bike! runs four-hour tours of the city’s best attractions, with a lesson in history along the way. Our tour guide Lauren van Vuuren took us, at a gentle pace, from the gentrified streets of the former East Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg along the site of the Berlin Wall. With the benefit of her expert knowledge of its history, you hear the story of the fall of the wall in 1989, and the redevelopment of the city, for good and bad. The wall memorial to those who lost their lives shows the No Man’s Land between the East and West with its watchtowers still standing intact.
A moving stop in the Jewish Quarter gives time for quiet reflection at the spot where the Nazis took over an Old People’s Home, sending its elderly residents to their deaths at Auschwitz.
The former cemetery nearby now stands as a memorial to those who lost their lives in the concentration camps, and the victims of the final march on Berlin who are also buried in the old graveyard nearby.
The tour stops in the beautiful Gendarmenmarkt for lunch, before heading off for the Parliament building and the Tiergarten, one of the many ‘green lungs’ left in a city devastated by war and division. Berlin remains one of the great capitals of the world, full of