Postcard from Berlin: charmingly intense and dangerously corrupting

This article was updated in September 2025.

Only a few seconds after having set foot in the German capital city, one realises that Berlin is anything but Teutonic in character. In fact, it has long been the preferred destination of bohème crowds. To this day, Berlin remains charmingly intense and dangerously corrupting.

The city’s wide cultural offering allows tourists to have either a more relaxed holiday focused on classical events, or to enjoy a city escape among the most eccentric exhibitions in the world. The 1,895-seater Deutsche Oper is the largest opera house in Berlin, though the symbol of opera in Berlin is probably the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, a pearl of Palladian architecture located in the heart of former East Berlin. The original building was refurbished in 2017, transforming it into a top-class venue and a gem of structural engineering and acoustics. Its orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin, is one of the world's oldest and was led by General Music Director Daniel Barenboim from 1992 until 2023, when he stepped down for health reasons. Christian Thielemann was appointed Music Director in 2024.

From 2021-22, Komische Oper was in the hands of the visionary director Barrie Kosky, and his eclectic and radical programming of opera, operetta and musicals garnered the house many international awards and public recognition. The building is located in a very central position, just a few steps away from the Brandenburger Tor. Its majestic façade is by Kunz Nierade, a German architect famous mostly for his work on the Leipzig Opera House. Since 2023, the building has been undergoing renovations, and the company's productions are currently taking place at a variety of venues around Berlin, including the Schiller Theatre (a short hop from the Deutsche Oper in Charlottenburg) and an unused airport hangar at Berlin Tempelhof Airport.

For a snack or a main meal across the road from Komische Oper, the comfortable and deceptively large Einstein unter den Linden offers superb Viennese-accented fare – they claim that their Wiener Schnitzel is the best in town (we’re not going to argue) and the apple strudel is pretty much unbeatable. By the way, don’t just look for “Cafe Einstein” on Google Maps: there are several others. Savignyplatz is a mere fifteen-minute walk from the Deutsche Oper and the Schiller Theatre. A green oasis in the middle of West Berlin, it is the perfect place to grab a bite pre- or post-performance.

The Berliner Philharmonie is probably the most iconic concert hall in Berlin. Designed by Hans Scharoun in the early 1960s, it is a good example of organic architecture, a philosophy promoting the cohabitation of human artefacts and the natural world. A temple of acoustic perfection, it was originally developed from Scharoun's idea of “one person opposite another, arranged in circles in sweeping, suspended arcs around soaring crystal pyramids”. The chromatic building stands at the footsteps of the Tiergarten, the second largest urban park in Berlin. Here you can have a stroll and choose between thousands of paths crossing this large expanse.

Lovers of modern art and architecture should head for the Neue Nationalgalerie in the Kulturforum, a stone’s throw away from the Philharmonie. The building, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the great pioneers of modern architecture, is worth the trip on its own with its broad spaces and Mies’ trademark dislike of internal partitions. The permanent collection is sufficiently large that they frequently change the selection on display and the way it is presented: we saw a fascinating display of the tensions between figurative and abstract, politics art and politics, communist East and capitalist West.

Heading west from the Neue Nationalgalerie past Berlin Zoo, the Museum für Fotografie houses extensive collections of photography from the Kunstbibliothek and the Helmut Newton Foundation. Newton’s highly sexualised work may not be to everyone’s taste, but if that doesn’t appeal, the Kunstbibliothek’s exhibitions can be fascinating: seeing a retrospective of Rico Puhlmann, one of the post-WW2 fashion photographers, made for a thought-provoking counterpart to the collections at the Neue Nationalgalerie.

If you are passionate about architecture and design, you should also consider a visit to the Bauhaus Archive, displaying avant-garde projects of the 20th century's most important college of architecture, design and art. In 2025, a new building is under construction, with a temporary building located on Knesebeckstraße. For a more focused exhibition, the Berlinische Galerie offers different collections of art exclusively created in the German capital and the surrounding region

When venturing into the former East Berlin, the Mauermuseum – Haus am Checkpoint Charlie should be your starting point. Opened in 1962, just one year after the construction of the Berlin Wall, it originally hosted a small exhibition. In 1963, it moved to its current site in the last building directly before the border, acting as a safe house for refugees and a place of protest. It now covers over 2,000 square metres, in which you will discover how inventive people were in their attempts to reach the other side. Berlin has not been the only city divided by an imposing wall, so part of the exhibition addresses the topic of civil rights more generally from a global perspective. The Jewish Museum, on nearby Lindenstraße, should also be on your list. Designed by Daniel Libeskind, it houses an interactive exhibition about the history of the Jewish community in Germany.

Right in the heart of the former East Berlin lies Museuminsel (Museum Island), featuring several world-renowned museums on an island in the Spree. The complex includes the Altes Museum, Neues Museum (home to the bust of Nefertiti), Alte Nationalgalerie, Bode-Museum, and Pergamonmuseum. In the Alte Nationalgalerie, you can get lost among romantic pictures by Caspar David Friedrich, whilst the Pergamonmuseum (currently closed for renovation as of 2025) offers a view of the monumental Pergamon Altar as well as other archaeological beauties from Ancient Greece. There may have been controversy surrounding the construction of Berliner Schloss, now housing the Humboldt Forum, but it is well worth a visit. This cultural centre rises from the rubble of the Palast der Republik, the former parliamentary seat of the GDR that was completely dismantled in 2009 – rumour has it that its walls contained asbestos.

If you want to treat yourself to a traditional German meal, the best area is Nikolaiviertel. Located just across the river from Museuminsel, five minutes away from Alexanderplatz, the area is one of the oldest in Berlin. After wandering around the reconstructed Medieval alleys, you can stop at Zur Gerichtslaube, where you will be welcomed by friendly staff, substantial dishes and refreshing German lagers.