Explorer Berlin

Madame Tussauds Berlin is a wax museum on Unter den Linden displaying more than 100 life-like wax figures of musicians, actors, athletes, politicians and historical figures. The figures are grouped into themed zones covering film and television, music, sport and history, with areas set up for photographs.

The Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in central Berlin, built between 1788 and 1791 for King Frederick William II of Prussia to a design by Carl Gotthard Langhans. Its sandstone columns support a bronze quadriga sculpted by Johann Gottfried Schadow. The gate marked the Cold War division of the city and now stands at the western end of Unter den Linden.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe commemorates the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Designed by architect Peter Eisenman and completed in 2005, it covers 1.9 hectares near the Brandenburg Gate with 2,711 concrete slabs of varying height on sloping ground. An underground exhibition lists the names of around three million victims.

The Reichstag building is the historic parliament building on Platz der Republik in Berlin, built between 1884 and 1894 to designs by Paul Wallot and now the seat of the Bundestag. Severely damaged in the 1933 Reichstag fire and in the Second World War, it was rebuilt between 1995 and 1999 by architect Norman Foster, who added the walk-in glass dome above the plenary chamber.

Pergamonmuseum. Das Panorama is a temporary exhibition hall on Museum Island, open since 2018. Its centrepiece is Yadegar Asisi's 360-degree panorama reconstructing the ancient city of Pergamon in the 2nd century AD, shown alongside original finds from the Pergamon excavations while the main Pergamonmuseum is closed for renovation.

A private museum on Leipziger Platz, opened in 2015 on the former Cold War dividing line between East and West Berlin. Around 1,000 objects trace espionage history from antiquity to today, including an Enigma machine and the poison-tipped umbrella used to kill the dissident Georgi Markov. Visitors can try a laser maze and code-breaking challenges.

A red-brick Neo-Gothic church on Werderscher Markt in Mitte, built between 1824 and 1831 to a design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, otherwise known for neoclassical buildings. Deconsecrated and restored, it reopened in 2019 as a museum of the Nationalgalerie, showing nineteenth-century German sculpture alongside material on Schinkel's own career.

The Bode Museum is a domed building on Berlin's Museum Island, built from 1898 to 1904 to plans by Ernst von Ihne and originally named the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum. It houses the Sculpture Collection, the Museum of Byzantine Art and the coin cabinet. Museum Island was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.

The James Simon Gallery is the entrance building for Museum Island, designed by David Chipperfield and opened in 2019. Built on the site of the former Packhof between the Neues Museum and the Kupfergraben canal, it holds ticketing, a café, and rotating special exhibitions, and is named after art patron James Simon.

LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Berlin is an indoor family attraction near Potsdamer Platz with ten LEGO-themed zones, including a 4D cinema, a NINJAGO-themed ride and a DUPLO play area for young children. Its Miniland section reproduces Berlin landmarks built from LEGO bricks.

An observation deck on the 24th floor of the Kollhoff Tower at Potsdamer Platz, reached by a lift that takes about 20 seconds to climb to roughly 90 metres. The viewing platform includes an open-air section with a display on the history of Potsdamer Platz, and a café one floor below.

The Neues Museum on Berlin's Museum Island was built between 1843 and 1855 to designs by Friedrich August Stüler. Damaged in the Second World War and left in ruins for decades, it was restored by architect David Chipperfield between 1999 and 2009. It houses the Egyptian Museum and the Museum of Pre- and Early History.

Asisi Panorama: The Wall is a panoramic painting by artist Yadegar Asisi, displayed inside a purpose-built rotunda at Checkpoint Charlie. The circular artwork depicts everyday life in divided Berlin's Kreuzberg district beside the Berlin Wall in the 1980s, viewed from an elevated visitor platform.

A branch of the Swedish Fotografiska photography museum network, founded in Stockholm in 2010. The Berlin museum opened in September 2023 in the former Kunsthaus Tacheles building on Oranienburger Straße in Mitte, showing changing exhibitions of contemporary photography alongside a café, restaurant and rooftop bar.

A museum near Checkpoint Charlie devoted to the Trabant, the small car built in East Germany from 1957. Opened in 2014, it displays around twenty cars and three engines, from original P50, 600 and 601 models to modified versions including an armoured Trabant and a camper conversion with a roof tent.

The Altes Museum is a Neoclassical building on Berlin's Museum Island, designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and built between 1825 and 1830 for King Frederick William III. Its colonnaded facade faces the Lustgarten. The museum houses the Antikensammlung, Berlin's collection of Greek and Roman antiquities.

The Alte Nationalgalerie is a temple-like building on Berlin's Museum Island, built between 1862 and 1876 to designs by Friedrich August Stüler and Johann Heinrich Strack. An equestrian statue of King Frederick William IV stands on its grand staircase. The gallery houses paintings and sculpture from the 19th century.

Checkpoint Charlie was the only Berlin Wall crossing point designated for foreign tourists, diplomats and Allied armed forces personnel, in use from 1961 to 1990. A reconstructed guard hut and sandbags now mark the site on Friedrichstraße, flanked by a sign warning drivers they are leaving the American sector.

The Tiergarten is a 210-hectare park at the centre of Berlin, founded in 1527 as a hunting ground for the Elector of Brandenburg and redesigned as an English-style landscape park in the 19th century by Peter Joseph Lenné. It stretches between the Brandenburg Gate and Berlin Zoo, crossed by footpaths and the Landwehr Canal. The Berlin Victory Column stands at its centre.

The Topography of Terror is a museum and memorial on Niederkirchnerstraße, on the former site of the SS and Gestapo headquarters during the Nazi era. Its exhibitions document the organisations behind Nazi persecution, alongside an outdoor trail beside a surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall. Excavated foundations of the former Gestapo buildings lie along an open-air trench.