©Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd 111 Potsdamer Platz & Tiergarten POTSDAMeR PLATZ | KuLTuRFORuM | TIeRGARTeN | DIPLOMATeNvIeRTeL Neighbourhood Top Five 1 Feeling your spirit soar zling a cold one in a beer to the Nazis and often paid while studying an Aladdin’s garden. the ultimate price at the cave of Old Masters at the 3 Stopping for coffee and Gedenkstätte deutscher magnificent Gemälde- people-watching beneath widerstand (p121). galerie (p116). the magnificent canopy of 5 Catching Europe’s fastest 2 Getting lost amid the the svelte glass-and-steel lift to the panoramapunkt lawns, trees and leafy sony center (p113). (p114) to admire Berlin’s paths of the Tiergarten 4 Learning about the impressive cityscape. park (p125), followed by guz- brave people who stood up Platz der Republik Paulstr er Jo str 6666666Spree Riv hn-Fost 66e Scheidemann er -Dulles-Al l e 000 eg 000 w 000Pariser ee 000 pr 000Platz S 000 Grosser Strasse des 17 Juni T 222 Stern i Bellevueallee e 222 r 6666666666g 222 TIERGARTEN a r 222Holocaust t e 222r Memorial Hofjägerallee n t t 222 s u n rt n e e b l ##÷ Luiseninsel r E 2 Rousseauinsel ést Lenn Bellevuestr 66666666Vossstr Potsdamer str Tiergarten Platz K 3##æ l #æ r i n r Str t dame g ts #æ s Po 5# r e e l #â# l h 1 S ü ö t S t f igi re S e #æ sm 4# und s r Hiroshimastr e s s tr m t dt-Str 666666r 6 ey a d-H n V- La n nd s er w r t f e t u h Stauffenbergstr r ow r R S ütz kan ei L al berger Ufer ch r öne p e Sch ie n r ts e Lützowstr t c Linkstr h h S u t fe ö er r K n i KurfürstenstrSchillstr h 666t 0 500 m en e# 0 0.25 miles G 6 For more detail of this area, see map p316 A 112 Lonely Planet’s Top Tip Explore: Potsdamer Platz & Tiergarten From July to September, the Despite the name, Potsdamer Platz is not just a square but lovely thatch-roofed Tee- Berlin’s newest quarter, born in the ’90s from terrain once haus im englischen Garten bifurcated by the Berlin Wall. A collaborative effort by the (p125) presents free con- world’s finest architects, it is a vibrant showcase of urban certs at 4pm and 7pm every renewal. The area itself is rather compact and quickly ex- Saturday and Sunday� plored if you don’t linger in the shopping mall, have a re- storative coffee in the Sony Center plaza, see Berlin from above from the Panoramapunkt or dive into German film 5 Best Places history at the Museum für Film und Fernsehen. to Eat At the nearby Kulturforum cultural complex, you can mingle with masters old and modern in five museum ¨ Restaurant Gropius (p125) sand take in a concert at the renowned Berliner Philhar- monie, all master planned in the 1950s by architectural Facil (p125) ¨ wizard Hans Scharoun. Further west, black limousines Po ¨ Joseph-Roth-Diele are a common sight in the Diplomatenviertel (Diplo- (p123) T matic Quarter), which is also distinguished by some fine sda For reviews, see p123 A contemporary architecture. And if your head is spinning after all that cultural stimulus, the leafy paths of the M er Pla vast Tiergarten, Berlin’s equivalent of New York’s Cen- tral Park, will likely prove to be a restorative antidote. 6 Best Places to Drink T z & Tiergar ¨ victoriabar (p126) Local Life ¨ Solar (p125) ¨ Café am Neuen See ¨ Museums Berliners are passionate about art, and they (p125) especially love the blockbuster international exhibits For reviews, see p125 A that periodically land at the Neue Nationalgalerie (p119). T When New York City’s Museum of Modern Art came by, en art devotees waited an average of three hours to score a Best for ticket. Some even camped out overnight. 1 ¨ Architecture concerts Empty seats are a rare sight at the Berliner Philharmonie (p126), especially when Sir Simon Rattle ¨ Philharmonie (p120) swings the baton. The free lunchtime concerts lure plenty ¨ Bauhaus Archiv (p122) of onlookers, from students to tourists and desk-jockeys. ¨ Sony Center (p113) ¨ Tiergarten When the sun is out, Berliners just want For reviews, see p119 A to get outdoors to the sweeping lawns, shady paths and romantic corners of the Tiergarten park, followed by a cold beer and pizza at the beer garden of Café am Neuen See (p125). Getting There & Away ¨ bus No 200 comes through from Zoologischer Garten and Alexanderplatz, M41 links the Hauptbahnhof with Kreuzberg and Neukölln via Potsdamer Platz, and the M29 comes in from Checkpoint Charlie. ¨ s-bahn S1 and S2 link Potsdamer Platz with Unter den Linden and the Scheunenviertel. ¨ u-bahn U2 stops at Potsdamer Platz and Mendelssohn–Bartholdy–Park..