Berlin city guide: what to see plus the best bars, restaurants and hotels

Exploring Berlin’s post-Wall era

Lichtgrenze, The Wall of Light
On the weekend of 7-9 November, a light installation of 8,000 white helium balloons on poles will be set up along the former course of the Wall through the city centre – a “symbol of hope for a world without walls”. A hundred “Wall stories” are presented along the route, with historical film footage playing in selected spots. At around 7pm onSunday 9th, exactly 25 years after the Wall fell, locals will attach messages and wishes to the balloons and release them into the sky. A stage at the Brandenburg Gate will host performances by Peter Gabriel (who will sing David Bowie’s Berlin anthem Heroes), DJ Paul Kalkbrenner, and the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra with conductor Daniel Barenboim.
• visitberlin.de, free

And don’s miss …
The Berlin Wall memorial, a 70m section with death strip and watchtower. The visitor centre, opening next Sunday, will have films and views from the tower .
• berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de, free

West:Berlin exhibition
When the Wall fell, East Germans were free to travel, but it’s often forgotten that West Berliners were liberated as well. Their heavily guarded and subsidised “island of freedom” lost its political importance overnight, and West Berlin suffered as tourists and investment headed back east to the old city centre. The area has recently undergone something of a revival, with new shopping malls, hotels, skyscrapers and museums. From 14 November, the West:Berlin exhibition analyses 40 years of life in isolation, with photos, artworks, film and recordings of street sounds.
• Mitte district, west.berlin, €7

Tours

Berlin holds plenty of interesting stories in unlikely locations, so joining a tour is particularly worthwhile. Experts from the Slow Travel Berlin blog run regular themed walks at €15pp, including one on GDR architecture and a Wall walk. A fascinating Isherwood’s Neighbourhood tour (€12) takes in the naughty parts of the Schöneberg district, frequented by gay British writer Christopher Isherwood in the late 1920s. The tour shows that Berlin is rather tame nowadays compared with the days of Cabaret, the stage show and film based on Isherwood’s novels.

C/O Berlin
When the Amerika Haus cultural centre opened in 1957 in West Berlin, a young American artist called Will McBride exhibited his photos of the new Berlin, a city still half ruined but coming to life. The famed C/O Berlin photography gallery recently moved into the building, and McBride again features in the opening exhibition, running until 16 January, with a wonderful collection of photos from the 1950s until the Wall’s construction.
• Charlottenburg, co-berlin.org

Tempelhof airport

Tempelhof airport is famous for its revolutionary design and for the Allied airlift that supplied West Berlin’s two million inhabitants for almost a year in 1948-49 during the Soviet blockade. The last flight departed in 2008, and this is now Berlin’s coolest park, a huge expanse where you can cycle down the runways, learn kite landboarding, and admire the creative community gardens. Tours of the massive 1930s terminal building take you from the roof down to the bunkers.
• thf-berlin.de. Park free, tours €13

Vostel
After a few days of Berlin hedonism why not give something back? Vostel connects visitors with charity projects. Help out for a few hours or a day by engaging with disabled young adults, helping build an adventure playground, upgrading donated clothing, sorting and distributing donated food, or helping out at an emergency shelter for the homeless. Knowledge of German is useful but not essential, there’s no fee, and last-minute applications are welcome.
• vostel.de

Cinema
Every Saturday at midnight, the 1929 Babylon cinema shows a silent movie, with music on the original organ.
• babylonberlin.de, free but book in advance

Where to eat

Pantry
At the fashionable northern end of Friedrichstrasse, Pantry is a pleasant surprise for its combination of fine dining and casual service. The small but remarkable interior has golden walls and red upholstered seats. Asian starters include a Japanese shoyu-ramen noodle soup (€9); there are several fish dishes, an upmarket bison burger (€18) and an excellent grilled entrecôte steak with fried sweet potatoes and choron sauce (€27).
• Mitte, +49 30 3462 3612, pantry-berlin.com

Joseph Roth Diele
By far the most interesting spot near touristy Potsdamer Platz, this classic and cosy restaurant is dedicated to Joseph Roth, a Jewish Austrian journalist and writer who lived and wrote about Berlin in the 1920s; his quotes line the walls. There are good, simple meals – think homemade Käsespätzle (cheese noodles with bacon) for €5.95 – but it’s equally suitable for a glass of wine or beer after a visit to the nearby art galleries.
• Mitte, +49 30 26 36 98 84, joseph-roth-diele.de, closed weekends

Markthalle IX
One of the last of Berlin’s original 19th-century market halls, Markthalle IX, with its Italian bakery and the Kantine Neun lunch restaurant, is at the forefront of Berlin’s foodie revolution. Its organic food markets are low-key on Tuesdays and Fridays, busier on Saturdays and packed on “Street Food Thursday”, which draws crowds from across town to food carts from around the world (from €3). And there are regular specialist markets on Sundays: cheese, breakfast foods on 16 November, sweets on 7 December, and gifts and crafts in the run up to Christmas.
Kreuzberg, markthalle9.de

Where to drink

Neue Heimat
A few halls at the rear of the RAW-Gelände, a much-graffitied area full of former railway workshops, have been transformed into an attractive post-industrial hangout. Every Friday is Bar & Food night, when teams from bars across the city are invited to mix drinks here, and street food is served from trucks and stands. DJs and live jazz keep the party going till 4am. There’s also a food and music market on Sunday afternoon and evening.
• Friedrichshain, neueheimat.com, Fri-Sat 7pm-4am

Klunkerkranich
A collection of huts on top of a shopping mall car park in the Neukölln district, the “Wattled Crane” bar is perfect for drinking beers as the sunset lights up the Berlin skyline, while alternative bands and electro DJs provide the music. Shared tables and a raised lounging podium ensure good views. In winter the crowds retreat into the wooden hut. And, this being Berlin, there’s also a rooftop flower and vegetable garden and a beekeeping project.
• Neukölln, klunkerkranich.de, open daily until midnight

White Trash Fast Food
Fine burgers and steaks are served at the American restaurant in the latest reincarnation of this grubby and well-known nightlife venue, in Treptow’s Arena complex, but it’s really all about the music and atmosphere. There’s live blues, rock, psychedelic and other alternative styles almost every night, followed by DJs. For a lasting souvenir, visit the in-house No Pain No Brain tattoo shop.
• Treptow, whitetrashfastfood.com, open daily from noon

Where to stay

25hours Hotel Bikini Berlin
Attached to an iconic 1950s shopping complex, now the Bikini Berlin concept mall, the chic 25hours Hotel has an urban jungle theme, combining raw concrete, recycled materials and designer furnishings with abundant foliage and lots of hammocks. Rooms overlook either the monkey enclosures in the leafy zoo, or the busy Budapesterstrasse. The Neni restaurant on the top floor serves Middle Eastern cuisine, and the Monkey Bar, with its zoo views, is the best new watering hole on this side of Berlin.
• City West, +49 30 120 2210, 25hours-hotels.com, doubles from €100

Ellington Hotel
This jazz-themed hotel with modern white rooms in a building known as the Tauentzien Palace, is handy for the shops on Kurfürstendamm. Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and other jazz legends played here in 1950s and 60s when the impressive Bauhaus building was home to the Badewanne club, and later the Dschungel discotheque attracted the likes of David Bowie and Lou Reed. The hotel keeps the spirit alive with jazz brunch on Sunday, and is also home to a jazz radio station. It offers free late checkouts on Sundays.
• Charlottenburg, +49 30 683150, ellington-hotel.com, doubles from €128

Linnen

Close to the boutiques and restaurants of Prenzlauer Berg, and just round the corner from the Sunday Mauerpark flea market, Linnen offers individually designed rooms and apartments – one with a four-poster bed, another decorated with recycled wood, and so on. You sleep on soft Portuguese bedding, and in the morning breakfast on organic coffee and French pastries in the charming cafe downstairs.
• Prenzlauer Berg, +49 30 4737 2440, linnenberlin.com, doubles from €85

Jeroen van Marle is a Berlin-based writer for Rough Guides and InYourPocket.com