Berlin itinerary suggestions

If you want to maximize what you see, and the stories behind it, I used an EXCELLENT tour guide in Berlin. Message me for details if you’re interested.

Don't miss the Pergamum Museum.

If you have a good guide I think you can accomplish what you want to see. We had a friend of a friend who lived there guide us. Two days in Berlin, one day in Potsdam. Very interesting with WWII history and Communist era too. On Museum Island we especially enjoyed the Bode, Neues and Pergamon Museums.

Great that you intend to do a day trip in Mecklenburg. in spite of such a short stay in Berlin, my favourite city in Germany.

Mecklenburg consisted of two regions. Your ancestral town is in the famous region, ie Mecklenburg-Strelitz, as that region is connected to the Hohenzollern monarchy.

"Vorpommern" was one half of Pomerania, the other half to the east along the Baltic was "Hinterpommern"

Aside from seeing Fürstenberg I heartily suggest one place in particular: the town of Schwerin to see the lovely and enchanting chateau (Schloss), should you still have time. This chateau is located in the other region of Mecklenburg, known as Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

I've spent a lot of time in Berlin and love it. I always vote for staying longer, but if 1.5 days is what you have, go for 1.5 days!

Alexanderplatz and Hackescher Markt were fairly quick "walk throughs" for me, so should be able to be easily paired with a Museum Island museum or two. The east side gallery is available pretty much any time, so I would think it would fit in on the 1/2 day, too.

Day #2 looks pretty good to me, too. Postdamer Platz at this point is more shopping than anything else. Given your short time, I don't think it would be high on my list.

The DDR Museum close to museum island is an interesting stop. While it deals some with the darker moments of DDR (East German) history, it is a private museum that (1) wants visitors to want to come back and (2) wants them to buy plastic DDR egg holders and toy Trabants in the gift shop, so it's a fairly happy museum about the DDR.

For only one day and to get a feel for the city, I think the half day walking tour is what you would want. Berlin Walks does a 3.5 hour tour that goes past all the major attractions and tells you the history and of the city and monuments. After that you can decide if there is any building/museum you want to see more. To me that would be better spent then just going to Alexanderplatz(really just a big and boring open space) or Hackescher Markt(more shops). It's kind of like people wanting to see Trafalger Square or Leicester Square, there really isn't much to see other then jumbo screens and shops. And Lord Nelson of course.

To make the most of your time there, get a really good guide - for private tours, go with Jeremy the Berlin Expert or for a group tour, Insider Tours.

I agree with taking a walking tour in this most walkable city. If you stay in Prenzlauer Berg, you will pass through Hacksescher Markt making transit connections, and that should be enough. Try to tour the dome at the Reichstag - just before sunset. The GDR museum at the Kulturbrauerei may be less touristy and thus more serious than the better known museum near the river. Topography of Terror and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe if you are so inclined. In general, less time in museums and more time on the streets will give you a better feel for the city. Assuming your train arrives at Berlin Hauptbahnhof, that is a tourist attraction in itself.

As often happens on the forum, your advisers here have given you an ever-longer list of sights to cram into your day and a half! ;-) But I think the plan you first outlined makes sense for your very limited time. And Original Berlin Walks does a very good English-speaking tour that goes from Hackescher Markt to Checkpoint Charlie, with four daily departures in high season, fewer in other months. It walks you through Museum Island but of course doesn't go into any museums. You pass through Brandenburg Gate and see the Reichstag from a short distance. You also see a chunk of the Berlin Wall, and much more. Alexanderplatz is a short walk from Hackescher Markt. The U-Bahn and S-Bahn are a great way to get around.

I was underwhelmed by the Gemaldegalerie in the Kulturforum, and Potsdamer Platz, as Dave noted, is just a big shopping center. On the other hand, I was so interested in the Reichstag that I went on a 2-hour tour inside, in German, just to get up to the dome. Tickets to the dome require advance booking by time slot, well in advance. You may not have this flexibility.

I stayed in a hotel just off Hackescher Markt and was happy with the location, including proximity to the S-Bahn for the airport. But you may not be using BER for your homeward flight. Berlin is certainly worth more than the time you have, but you have a good general plan for using that time. And I understand the family history thing, I did a day trip from Amsterdam to my ancestral town a few years back and it was well worthwhile.

OP--

I love the "About" section on your user profile, especially...

Life is good. The world is beautiful. And art, IMO, makes it all the
more worthwhile.

Your profile helps us to know that art is a big part of your travel and explains the focus on art museums in your original post. Given that, I wonder if a good way to explore Berlin might be to do the walking tour in the Rick Steves Germany guide late afternoon/early evening. Sunset on March 1 is 5:45 pm. extending about an hour by the end of the month (with daylight savings kicking in another hour on March 26). That would let you get your museum time in during the day, if that is high priority for you.

Alternatively, maybe a later afternoon walking tour with a private guide would work, too. Ms Jo threw out her favorite. My favorite is Robert Sommer who was the 15 yo punk rocker son of a high-level East German bureaucrat on the day the Berlin Wall fell -- he can give lots of insight into Berlin, the old East German days, and unification. http://thetrueberliner.com/

If you want to see the sites, a daytime walking tour definitely is fine, too, but if art is your big reason for being in Berlin, a daytime walking tour may take too much time?

Thanks for all the helpful advice.

As Dave noted, seeing top notch art works is our primary goal. So we need to read up a bit more on German art - with which we're not very familiar - in order to narrow down our itinerary choices regarding museums.

A walking tour of some kind makes a lot of sense, too, and I'm wondering if the Rick Steves audio might be sufficient for a first taste of the city. We used his audio recordings in Florence and Venice, Italy, and found them to be very insightful and interesting.

I found out this week that my ancestors from Furstenberg actually lived in the village of Ravensbruck. Though they were at least a generation removed from the Nazi women's concentration camp there, it's still a rather chilling discovery. Is a visit to the Ravensbruck Memorial and Museum worth the time?

Karen

I used Rick Steves' Berlin City Walk audio guide when I was in Berlin in the spring. It covers the biggies from the Reichstag to Potzdamer Platz in about an hour and a half. That wasn't my first time in Berlin, and I still learned some things from it.

I think East Side Gallery is a must, as is the Reichstag (which requires advance reservations).

As far as art goes, I too am an art lover but I have not been to any of the musems on Museum Island yet. I did, however, go to the Berlinische Galerie when I was in Berlin a few weeks ago. If you have any interest in modern art in Germany from the unification to the re-unification, you might enjoy this museum of art and photography.

Whatever you do, make sure you map out your destinations in advance so you don't spend a lot of time bouncing back and forth across the city. With such a short time, you might want to save all the art museums for another trip.

Given your goals for Berlin, I think the Rick Steves audio walk would be perfectly adequate.

I've made a visit to Ravensbrück. Took the train to Fürstenberg and then walked about 25-30 minutes to the camp -- apparently taxis are available, as well as a bus that shortens the trip. Interestingly, the old housing for Nazis working at the camp is now a youth hostel. I found the memorial/museum to be well done (and my buddy Robert mentioned above, who has a PhD in history, contributed to the exhibit); there are minimal to no horrifying photos... the story is told mainly through artifacts and through drawings made by the prisoners (speaking of art). It was a worthwhile activity for me.

If you had more time, I would suggest a visit to the Bonhoeffer House. As you likely know, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of the few German theologians to oppose the Nazis. The House is the home of his parents, where he stayed while in Berlin during the war and where he was arrested by the Gestapo. On Saturday mornings, there is a 45-minute lecture on his life and then a quick visit to his room that has some original artifacts. There are actually two lectures -- one in English and one in German. The house is a bit of a walk from the Grunewald train station (though a nice walk through a perfectly manicured old Berlin neighborhood). The Grunewald train station also has the Gleis 17 memorial (Track 17 memorial), located at the track used to transport Berlin's Jews to concentration camps. The track is surrounded by grates that memorialize each train that departed from the track; each grate has the date of the train, the destination of the train and the number of souls aboard. It's a moving spot.

I have been to Ravensbrück twice and found it extremely worth while to visit and the exhibits were heartbreaking. Many of the women there were from other countries, having been picked up for being spies or in the Resistance movements. Many women were Jehovah Witnesses, while others had been picked up for prostitution or being "work shy". Roma and Sinti were also here as well as political prisoners, the Socialists and Communists. One building has exhibits from each country that had women who were imprisoned there.

The guard cabins had exhibits in them too and many of the women guards learned their "job" here before going on to Auschwitz. The place looks so lovely when you first pull up, cabins on a hill, pretty lake in front with sailboats, with the town on the other side. Then you see all the barracks.
Siemens built a factory here, to make use of all that cheap labor that was available 18 hours a day, 7 days a week.

If you cannot go here, then go to Sachsenhausen at least. Track 17 is so moving, you will be speechless. Even a visit to the Olympic Stadium is good to show the scope and depth of the Nazi policy on EVERYTHING.