Things to Do in Berlin, Germany: Walking Guide

The best things to do in Berlin range from royal palaces and monumental churches to museums, memorials, concert halls, and places shaped by Germany’s divided past. Berlin is worth visiting for the way these layers meet in the same city: historic buildings stand alongside modern cultural spaces, while districts such as Spandau, Tiergarten, and Biesdorf add different perspectives beyond the central landmarks. Neywo has a free audio guide for Berlin with 480 narrated places.

What to See in Berlin

Spandau Citadel

The Spandau Citadel, or Zitadelle Spandau, is one of Europe’s best-preserved Renaissance military structures. Its medieval castle forms the core of the complex, around which a new fortress was built between 1559 and 1594 using the military technology of the time. Today, the Citadel functions as a museum, and its inner courtyard has hosted open-air concerts in summer since 2005.

Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate is one of Berlin’s most recognizable landmarks and a national symbol associated with major moments in German history. Built between 1788 and 1791 under King Frederick William II of Prussia, it is a neoclassical triumphal gate designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans.

Its most distinctive feature is the Quadriga, a bronze sculpture by Johann Gottfried Schadow showing the goddess of victory on a four-horsed chariot. The façade has twelve fluted Doric columns, two former guard pavilions, and five passageways decorated with reliefs depicting the Labors of Hercules. The gate was also associated with the end of Napoleon’s rule between 1813 and 1815.

Reichstag

The Reichstag is the seat of Germany’s parliament and one of Berlin’s enduring political symbols. Paul Wallot designed the Neo-Renaissance building, which was constructed between 1884 and 1894 beside the River Spree in the Tiergarten district.

The building has housed different German parliaments, including the Reichstag of the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. It was severely damaged by the Reichstag fire in 1933 and again during the Second World War. Between 1995 and 1999, Norman Foster redesigned it for its permanent role as the parliament building of reunified Germany. Its walk-in glass dome, positioned above the plenary chamber, is one of its defining features.

Soviet War Memorial

In the Großer Tiergarten, the Soviet War Memorial commemorates Soviet soldiers who died during the Battle of Berlin in April and May 1945. Built in 1945 by the Soviet Union, the memorial stands along Straße des 17. Juni in Berlin’s Tiergarten district. Its remembrance specifically focuses on about 80,000 fallen soldiers of the Soviet Armed Forces.

Berliner Philharmonie

The Berliner Philharmonie is the home of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and one of the most distinctive buildings in the Kulturforum. Designed by Hans Scharoun, the main concert hall was built between 1960 and 1963.

The hall places the podium at the centre of a pentagonal space, with public galleries extending towards its five corners. The Grand Hall seats 2,440 people, while the Chamber Music Hall seats 1,180. The smaller hall opened in the 1980s, around two decades after the main building. The exterior was gilded between 1978 and 1981, giving the building its striking golden appearance and tent-like silhouette.

Charlottenburg Palace

Charlottenburg Palace is one of Berlin’s major royal residences and is now a museum. Built in several stages between 1695 and 1791, it brings together Baroque, Rococo, and Classicist styles. The architects involved were Johann Friedrich Eosander, Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, and Carl Gotthard Langhans.

The complex includes the Altes Schloss, the Schlossgarten, the Belvedere, a mausoleum, and the Neuer Pavillon. Its park was first designed as a French garden by Siméon Godeau from 1697, before Peter Joseph Lenné redesigned it as an English garden from 1819. Although the palace was badly damaged during the Second World War, it was rebuilt faithfully, with Margarete Kühn among the key contributors to the reconstruction.

Berliner Dom

The Berliner Dom is a monumental Evangelical church on the Lustgarten, on Museum Island in Berlin-Mitte. Often called Berlin Cathedral, it has never been the seat of a Catholic bishop. The present Neo-Renaissance building was commissioned by Wilhelm II and designed by Julius Raschdorff. It was constructed between 1894 and 1905.

The church is the largest Protestant church in Germany and one of Europe’s important dynastic tombs. Its history reaches back to a castle chapel connected with the Berlin Palace. The church was Catholic before becoming Lutheran in 1539 and Calvinist in 1608. Alongside worship, the building is used for state ceremonies, concerts, and other events.

Schönhausen Palace

Schönhausen Palace, or Schloss Schönhausen, is a Baroque palace in Berlin’s Niederschönhausen area. Gardens surround the building, and the River Panke runs through the park, making the relationship between palace and landscape part of the visit.

The palace served as a summer residence for Queen Elisabeth Christine during the reign of Friedrich the Great. From 1949 to 1960, it was the official office of Wilhelm Pieck, the first and only President of the DDR. After restoration that began in 2005, the palace reopened to the public in 2009.

Biesdorf Palace

Biesdorf Palace is a Neoclassical building in Schlosspark Biesdorf, in Berlin’s Marzahn-Hellersdorf district. It was built in 1868, and Werner von Siemens acquired it in 1887. The palace was damaged during the Second World War and later reconstructed according to its original appearance. The reconstruction was completed in 2016.

St. Hedwig’s Cathedral

On Bebelplatz, St. Hedwig’s Cathedral is one of Berlin’s major Catholic landmarks. Its circular design was modelled on Rome’s Pantheon. Commissioned by Frederick the Great and designed by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, the Baroque cathedral was built between 1747 and 1773.

The building was badly damaged in 1944 and rebuilt between 1952 and 1963. It closed for renovation in 2018 and reopened on November 24, 2024, with a modern interior. The round altar stands at the centre of the roughly circular church room, beneath an oculus, with the congregation arranged around it.

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, referred to in the source as Alter Glockenturm and often simply called the Memorial Church, stands on Breitscheidplatz. Franz Schwechten designed the original Protestant church in Neo-Romanesque style, and it was built between 1891 and 1895 as a memorial to Kaiser Wilhelm I.

Its original tower reached 113 metres. The church was severely damaged by bombing in 1943. After the war, the tower ruin was preserved as a warning memorial against war, while a new four-part ensemble was built between 1959 and 1963 by Egon Eiermann in a modern style.

Deutscher Dom

The Deutscher Dom, also known as the New Church, stands on Gendarmenmarkt. Although its appearance is cathedral-like, it was never the seat of a bishop. Its domed-tower design gave the church its informal name, while its connection with German-speaking Lutheran and Calvinist congregations helped establish the term “German Cathedral.”

The church was constructed in 1708 on an unusual five-petal plan. It was extensively remodelled in a neo-Baroque style in the 1880s, while the domed tower had been added between 1780 and 1785 on the commission of Friedrich II. The building was heavily damaged during the Second World War and later reconstructed.

Glienicke Bridge

Glienicke Bridge spans the Havel and links Berlin with Potsdam. The present bridge is the fourth at this location and opened at the end of 1907 under the name Kaiser-Wilhelm-Brücke.

The boundary between Berlin and Brandenburg runs across the middle of the bridge. During Germany’s division, the crossing became internationally famous for exchanges of captured spies. A staged agent exchange took place here on February 11, 1986—the third and last of the bridge’s three associated spy exchanges—giving Glienicke Bridge its better-known name, the “Bridge of Spies.”

Knoblauchhaus

In Nikolaiviertel, the Knoblauchhaus offers a look at Berlin domestic life and the history of one family. Built between 1759 and 1761, it remained in the Knoblauch family for 170 years. The house survived the Second World War largely unscathed, making it one of the few 18th-century Berlin residential buildings to do so.

The family sold the building to the city of Berlin in 1929. Its first and second floors contain a permanent exhibition about Biedermeier living culture and the Knoblauch family.

Brücke Museum

The Brücke Museum is dedicated to Die Brücke, or “The Bridge,” and holds the world’s largest collection of works by members of the German expressionist group. Its exhibitions change thematically, so only part of the collection is shown at any one time.

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff opened the museum in his own home in 1964. With support from Erich Heckel, it later moved into its current building, designed by Werner Düttmann and completed in 1967. The collection began with Schmidt-Rottluff’s donation of around 80 of his works to the city in 1964 and has expanded through later donations and acquisitions.

Explore Berlin with a Self-Guided Audio Tour

Neywo turns Berlin into a self-guided walking tour: the app tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Berlin has eight walking tours, one bus route, and one bike route, with narration available in 11 languages.

The walks include Museum Island at 1.35 km and 135 minutes with 12 stops; Tiergarten and the government quarter at 5.84 km and 191 minutes with 11 stops; and Nikolaiviertel and Alexanderplatz at 1.68 km and 121 minutes with 12 stops. Other options cover the Scheunenviertel, the Kulturforum and Potsdamer Platz, Unter den Linden and the Humboldt Forum, Gendarmenmarkt, and a longer route from Museum Island to Gendarmenmarkt.

There is also a 4.4 km, 19-minute bus route with six stops, Bus 100: Brandenburg Gate to Unter den Linden, and a 3 km, 15-minute bike route with eight stops, Tiergarten Ride: From the Victory Column to the Holocaust Memorial. Download Neywo and explore Berlin by following the city’s history as it unfolds around you.

For more destinations in the country, see the Germany guide.