Welcome to Berlin

Welcome to Berlin. No tour of Germany is complete without a look at its historic and reunited capital, Berlin. Once war-torn and divided, Berlin has emerged as one of Europe's top destinations, captivating, historic, fun-loving, and constantly evolving. Hi, I'm Rick Steves.

Thanks for joining me on a walk through the historic heart of Berlin. We start at the Reichstag, pass through the Brandenburg Gate, saunter down Unter den Linden Boulevard, and finish at Alexanderplatz. Along the way, we'll trace Berlin's 500-year history as Germany's cultural capital. We'll see the grandiose monuments of Prussia's emperors.

We'll see the sober reminders of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi era. We'll walk the path where the Berlin Wall once stood and learn about life under communist rule. Allow two to three hours for this two-and-a-half-mile walk. It's a great introduction to the sites you may want to explore further later on.

Or, if you only have one day in Berlin, this walk shows you the core of the city and its most important sites. We'll see how this city, leveled in World War II, divided by the Cold War, and torn up by Reconstruction, has now been reborn in the 21st century. It's the heartbeat of modern Germany, Berlin. To help us along the way, I've invited a good friend and virtual travel buddy.

Welcome, Lisa. Guten Tag, Herr Steves. Lisa will give us helpful directions and sightseeing tips throughout the tour. And my first tip is to be sure you get our tour updates.

Just press the icon at the lower right of your device. You'll find any updates and helpful instructions unique to this tour. Things like closures, opening hours, and reservation requirements. There's also tips on how to use this audio tour, and even the full printed script.

Yes, so pause for just a moment right now to review our updates and special tips. It's okay, we'll wait. And then... Let the tour begin! The tour begins.

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Tour Begins: Reichstag

The Reichstag. Start your walk directly in front of the Reichstag building at the big park called Platz der Republik. It's at the U-Bahn stop called Bundestag. Dominating the Platz der Republik is a giant domed building, the Reichstag.

Stand about 100 yards from the Grand Reichstag and take in your surroundings. Rick? Thanks, Lisa. The Reichstag is the heart of Germany's government.

It's where the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany's parliament, meets to govern the nation, similar to the U.S. House of Representatives. Berlin has always been Germany's capital. Whatever the form of government, from the first dukes of Brandenburg in medieval times to the kings and emperors of Prussia, the Weimar Republic, Hitler and the Nazis, communist East Germany, and on to the democracy of today.

Think of the history this Reichstag has seen. When the building was inaugurated in 1895, Germany was still a kingdom, ruled by the Hohenzollern family that had reigned here for nearly 500 years. Back then, the Reichstag was far from the real center of power. That was a mile east of here, at the royal palace.

Kaiser Wilhelm II disdainfully called this place the Reichsaffenhaus, the chatting house for monkeys. But after the emperor was deposed in World War I, the German Republic was proclaimed right on this spot. Look above the door to see the promise they carved into the facade. Dem deutschen Volk, to the German people.

That first democracy, known as the Weimar Republic, proved weak. Meanwhile, the storm of national socialism was growing, the Nazis. Soon, the Reichstag had dozens of duly elected national socialists, and eventually, Adolf Hitler seized power. Then, in 1933, the Reichstag building caught fire and nearly burned down.

Do they know how that happened? Well, no one's 100% sure. The Nazis blamed the Communists. Many believe it was a setup in that Hitler himself had planned the fire as an excuse to frame the Communists and grab power for himself.

Whatever happened, it worked. With Hitler as Fuhrer and real democracy a thing of the past, the Reichstag was hardly used. But it remained a powerful symbol. That's why, after Hitler led Germany into World War II, the Reichstag was a prime target for Allied bombers.

It survived, but you can still see the bomb damage. Look close at the inscription above the door and notice the stone patches where they repaired it. As World War II wound down and Soviet troops advanced on the city, it was here, at the Reichstag, that 1,500 German troops made their last stand before Berlin fell. After the war, Berlin was divided into East and West.

The Berlin Wall ran right behind the Reichstag. The Reichstag, now in a kind of no-man's land, fell into disuse as the West German capital was moved from Berlin to the remote city of Bonn, further west. But now, the wall is gone. Right.

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and Germany was reunited, the Reichstag once again became the focus of the new nation. It was renovated by British architect Norman Foster, who added the glass dome or cupola. In 1999, the new Reichstag was reopened and the parliament reconvened. To many Germans, the proud resurrection of their Reichstag symbolizes the end of a terrible chapter in their country's history.

Look now at the modern dome. The Reichstag's dome rises 155 feet above the ground. Inside the dome, a cone of 360 mirrors reflect natural light into the legislative chamber below. Lit from inside after dark, this gives Berlin a memorable nightlight.

The environmentally friendly cone with an opening at the top also helps with air circulation, expelling stale air from the legislative chamber and pulling in fresh cool air from above. You can go inside the Reichstag, but you need to make a reservation. Then you can climb the spiral ramp all the way to the top of the dome for a grand city view. But our tour is moving on.

Yes, but before leaving, let's check out some sites near the Reichstag. To the left of the Reichstag, at the Bundestag-U-Bahn stop, you'll see a big federal building. Beyond that, in the distance, is the tower of the huge main train station, the Hauptbahnhof. The tower is marked DB, for Deutsche Bahn, the German rail company.

Further left is the mammoth white concrete-and-glass chancellery. The structure is nicknamed the washing machine by Berliners for its hygienic spin-cycle appearance. It's the office of Germany's most powerful person, the chancellor. To remind the chancellor who he or she works for, Germany's Reichstag, housing the parliament, is about six feet taller than the chancellor building itself.

Now, face the Reichstag and start walking toward the Reichstag. To the right corner of the building, you're headed toward a memorial. It's a memorial that marks the moment when the Reichstag and its democracy came up against Adolf Hitler and the rising tide of fascism. The monument is low-key.

Keep an eye out for a line of stones embedded in the Platz der Republik. It looks a bit like a bike rack. In reality, it's a row of slate stones sticking out of the ground. This is the memorial to politicians who opposed Hitler.

The row of 96 slabs remembers the 96 members of the Reichstag who were persecuted and murdered because their politics didn't agree with Chancellor Hitler's. Each slate slab memorializes one man. You'll see his name and political party. Notice that most are KPD, communists, and SPD, social democrats.

There's also the date and location of his death. The KZ is for those who died in concentration camps. These courageous politicians are honored here, in front of the building in which they worked. This memorial is only the first of several we'll see on this walk.

Berlin is a city with a troubled past, and its citizens remember that with moving monuments. Let's go see some now. Lisa? Our next stop is Brandenburg, located about 200 yards to the right of the Reichstag.

But along the way, Rick will point a few things out. Start by walking along the right side of the Reichstag on busy Scheidemannstrasse toward the rear of the building. As you walk along Scheidemannstrasse, think about the transition from the Nazi years to the next dark chapter in Berlin's history, communism. At the end of World War II, Hitler was defeated, and the city was bombed, and essentially destroyed.

That's a theme we'll encounter time and again on this walk. In 1945, the western half of Berlin was liberated by the U.S. and the other allies. Meanwhile, the eastern half of the city fell under the control of the Russian-dominated Soviet Union.

We're approaching the line where the city was split in two. When you reach the intersection at the back of the Reichstag, turn right and go to and cross busy Scheidemannstrasse. With the traffic, it may take a moment or two to get there. Don't worry.

We'll wait for you. At the corner of Scheidemannstrasse and Ebertstrasse, on the right side, you'll see a small monument. Head for that spot. So once you reach the other side, start walking south down Ebertstrasse along the right side of the street.

After just a few steps, on the right, you'll see a row of white crosses. Pause at the crosses and consider the division of Berlin and the physical barrier that once stood in the middle, the Berlin Wall. Ebertstrasse,

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Eberstrasse: The Berlin Wall

the Berlin Wall. As you walk down Ebertstrasse, you're tracing the course of where the Berlin Wall once stood. The row of white crosses along the railing is the Berlin Wall Victim's Memorial. It commemorates some of the East Berliners who died trying to cross the wall.

During the wall's 28 years, 136 people were killed at the wall while trying to escape. Notice that the last person killed while trying to escape was 20-year-old Chris Geffroy. He died a mere nine months before the wall fell in 1989. He was shot through the heart just a few minutes ago.

He was shot a few meters away in no man's land. Continue along Ebertstrasse toward the Brandenburg Gate. The Berlin Wall was erected in 1961. While the wall is long gone, you can see memorial bricks in the pavement indicating where it once stood.

It was put up by the Soviet-dominated Communist government of East Germany. It formed a 96-mile-long barrier circling the entire area of West Berlin. It stood between the Soviet-controlled East and the U.S. leaning West.

Its purpose was to stop the outward flow of people from East to West. Some three million freedom-hungry East Germans had leaked out between 1949 and 1961. The wall, or Mauer, was actually two walls. The outer was a 12-foot-high concrete barrier topped with barbed wire and a rounded, pipe-like surface to discourage grappling hooks.

Sandwiched between the walls was a no-man's land, or death strip, between 30 and 160 feet wide. More than 100 sentry towers kept a close eye on the wall. On their way into the death strip, would-be escapees would trip a silent alarm, which alerted sharpshooters. According to documents, border guards fired a total of nearly 1,700 times and made 3,000 arrests.

There were about 5,000 documented successful escapes. 565 of those were East German guards. Ebertstrasse spills into a busy intersection dominated by the imposing Brandenburg Gate. The Brandenburg Gate

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Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate is a massive, classical-looking monument crowned with a four-horse chariot. It's the grandest and last survivor of the 14 gates in Berlin's Old City Wall. This one led to the neighboring city of Brandenburg. The gate was the symbol of Prussian-controlled Berlin.

The majestic chariot on top is driven by the Goddess of Peace. When Napoleon conquered Prussia in 1806, he took this statue back with him to the Louvre in Paris. Then, after the Prussians defeated Napoleon, they got it back. That was in 1813.

And the Goddess of Peace was renamed the Goddess of Victory. These days, the Brandenburg Gate is arguably the symbol of Berlin. The gate straddles the major east-west axis of the city. The western segment behind you stretches four miles running through Tiergarten Park to the Olympic Stadium.

To the east, the street is called Unter den Linden. That's where we're headed. In the distance, the red-and-white spire of the TV tower marks the end of this walk. Now, let's cross the busy street, again noticing the cobblestones marking where the Berlin Wall once stood.

Let's take a closer look. Let's take a closer look at the Brandenburg Gate. From 1961 to 1989, the Brandenburg Gate was the symbolic dividing point between East and West Berlin. You see, after World War II, the four victorious allies, the British, French, Americans, and Russian Soviets, divvied up the city into administrative zones.

The American-leaning free-market city of West Berlin was on this side of the Brandenburg Gate. On the other was Soviet-controlled communist-independent East Berlin. In short order, the paranoid Soviets started closing off free passage. First came a blockade of West Berlin that had to be broken by flying in supplies in the Berlin Airlift of 1949.

Then came the Berlin Wall in 1961. Barbed wire and armed guards made sure no one crossed the wall without official permission upon pain of death. For an entire generation, countless German families were divided, some on this side of the wall, some on the other. The Berlin Wall was the most potent symbol of the larger Cold War between East and West.

American presidents traveled here to Berlin to show their solidarity with the West. President Kennedy gave a speech near here declaring, Ich bin ein Berliner. I am a Berliner. President Reagan stood directly in front of the Brandenburg Gate and demanded of his Soviet counterpart, Mr.

Gorbachev, tear down this wall. By the 1980s, it was becoming clear that the once mighty Soviet Empire was slowly crumbling from within. Resistance grew, but no one could have predicted what happened next. Almost out of the blue, the ecstatic moment arrived, November 9, 1989.

The world rejoiced at the sight of happy Berliners standing atop the wall. They chipped away at it with hammers, passed beers to their long-lost cousins on the other side, and adorned the Brandenburg Gate like flowers on a parade float. To everyone's surprise, the wall came down. Eventually, it was physically dismantled, and Berliners, East and West, could now enjoy total freedom.

Let's walk through the gate. You're now free to enter what for years was forbidden territory. If you're interested, there's a small room inside the gate on the left, the Room of Silence, dedicated to silent prayer and meditation on the cost of freedom. Also around the gate, there are information boards with pictures of how this area changed throughout the 20th century.

And there's a small tourist office within the gate. As you pass through the gate, you enter former East Berlin. Pass all the way through the gate. You emerge into a grand square known as Pariserplatz. Stand in the middle and scan the sights. ¶¶ Pariserplatz

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Pariser Platz

Pariserplatz marks the start of Unter den Linden, the broad boulevard that stretches before you. Parisian Square was so named after the Prussians defeated France and Napoleon in 1813. The square was once filled with important governmental buildings, but all were bombed to smithereens in World War II. For decades, it was an unrecognizable, deserted no-man's land cut off from both East and West by the wall.

But now it's rebuilt, and the banks and hotels that were here before the bombing have reclaimed their original places with a few modern additions. And the winners of World War II, the United States, France, Great Britain, and Russia, enjoy this prime real estate. Their embassies are all on or near the square. To your right is the U.S.

Embassy. The embassy reopened here in its original shape, its original location in 2008. The building has been controversial. For safety's sake, Uncle Sam wanted more of a security zone around the building.

But the Germans wanted to keep Pariserplatz a welcoming people zone. The compromise? The extra security the U.S. wanted is built into the structure.

Easy-on-the-eyes barriers keep potential car bombs at a distance. And its front door is actually on the backside of the building, farthest from the Brandenburg Gate. Check out some of the other buildings facing the square. Further ahead, on the right, is the D.Z.

Bank building. It's worth stepping into the bank's lobby to see the striking modern atrium. Good idea. Let's go there now.

The architect, Frank Gehry, is famous for Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum, Prague's Dancing House, Seattle's Experience Music Project, Chicago's Millennium Park, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in L.A. Gehry fans who enjoy his attention-grabbing forms and colors might be surprised to learn that the U.S. Embassy is comprised at the bank building's low-profile exterior. Structures on Pariser Platz are designed so as not to draw attention away from the Brandenburg Gate.

But check out the lobby. This gives you your fix of wild and colorful Gehry. Built in 2001 as an office complex and conference center, the building's undulating interior is like a big, slithery fish. Gehry once explained, the form of the fish is the best example of movement.

I try to keep up with him, but I can't capture this movement in my buildings. For more of architect Frank Gehry's vision, read the plaque in the lobby near the fish. Now let's start making our way back outside, returning to Pariser Platz. The next building on the square is the Academy of Arts.

More on that in a second. But for now, turn your attention to the following building, the one that juts into the square and overlooks Unter den Linden Boulevard. This is the Ritzy Hotel Adlon. The original hotel was demolished after World War II and rebuilt in 1997.

Over the years, this venerable place has hosted celebrities and VIPs, from Charlie Chaplin to Albert Einstein. Wasn't it here that Michael Jackson... Yes, yes, exactly. It was here that pop star Michael Jackson shocked millions by dangling his baby over the railing.

It was the second balcony up. And the Hotel Adlon was the setting for the classic film Grand Hotel, in which Greta Garbo uttered the immortal line, I want to be alone. And I say, I want to move along. Because our tour must continue.

At this point, we'll be making a detour off the main Unter den Linden access to see some sobering World War II memorials. We'll return to the Hotel Adlon in a bit. To get to the memorials, leave Pariser Platz by passing through the Academy of Arts. That's the one between the D.Z.

Bank and Hotel Adlon. So, let's enter the Academy of Arts building. By the way, if the Academy of Arts is closed, you'll need to make a five-minute detour. Pause the audio guide and follow this route.

Walk to the left toward the Hotel Adlon. Circle around the Hotel Adlon to its backside. There, you'll find our next stop, the sprawling field of stubby concrete pillars. This is the Academy of Arts.

This is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. That's track six. But if the Academy of Arts is open, let's head there. Enter the Academy of Arts building.

Pass through the glassy arcade and start making your way to the back. By the way, there's a toilet in the basement if you need it. Just past the ground-floor café is the former office of Albert Speer. Speer was Hitler's chosen architect, the man charged with planning the rebuilding of Berlin, once the Nazis won the war.

Berlin was to have been the grandiose world capital of Nazi Europe. Pass through the glass door to see Speer's favorite statue, Prometheus, from around 1900. This is the kind of art that turned Hitler on, a strong, soldierly, vital man defending the homeland. Now, continue walking through the Academy of Arts building to the back.

By the way, about that Prometheus statue, I don't know if you've seen it, it's a statue of Hitler. It's a statue of Hitler. It's a statue of Hitler. It's a statue of Hitler.

It's a statue of Hitler. It's a statue of Hitler. It's a statue of Hitler. It's a statue of Hitler.

It's a statue of Hitler. I can't help but think that statues like this would have been everywhere in Berlin on a walk like this if Hitler had won the war. Brr. Continue on through the building and exit out the back.

As you exit, veer to the right. Cross the street, Behrenstrasse. Before you stretches a sea of gray pillars. A vast memorial to the Holocaust. Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

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Memorial to Murdered Jews of Europe

This Holocaust memorial consists of 2,711 coffin-shaped pillars covering an entire city block. It remembers the six million Jews who were killed by the Nazis during World War II. Completed in 2005, it's an essential stop for any visit to Berlin. It was the first formal German government-sponsored Holocaust memorial.

Using the word murdered in the title was intentional and a big deal. Germany as a nation was officially admitting to a crime. Jewish-American architect Peter Eisenman won the commission. Before getting to the memorial, he wanted to show that it's not only a memorial, but also a memorial for the Jews of Europe.

He wanted to show that it's not only a memorial, but also a memorial for the Jews of Europe. He wanted to show that it's a memorial for the Jews of Europe. He wanted to show that it's a memorial for the Jews of Europe. He wanted to show that it's a memorial for the Jews of Europe.