Tom Abbott’s Berlin - An insider’s view of Germany’s ever-changing capital

This is only a summary of the visits; there are more which are not mentioned here. As the itinerary is dependent on a number of special appointments, the order and even the content of the tour may vary. 

Day 1

Berlin Old and New. Fly from London Heathrow to Berlin (British Airways) at c. 11.00am. The symbolic centre of West Berlin, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was only partly restored after allied bombing as an anti-war monument. An adjacent modern church by Egon Eiermann, consecrated in 1962, has walls made up of 20,000 panels of stained glass. Still in the ^,60s, the Bikinihaus, Germany’s first ‘concept mall’, is part of a listed building complex in the zoological garden area.

Day 2

Baroque Berlin, Jewish Berlin, the GDR. See the Marienkirche, Berlin’s oldest parish church, with a 20-metre Dance of Death fresco (c. 1485), and the beautiful Baroque Lutheran Sophienkirche. A vibrant Jewish community developed around Hackescher Markt in the 19th century, and in 1866 the ‘New’ Synagogue was built on Oranienburger Straße. Visit the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm (1892), home to the Berliner Ensemble company, established in 1949 by Bertolt Brecht. The Friedrichstraße station was from 1962 the crossing point from East to West; known as the Tränenpalast (Palace of Tears) it now houses an exhibition documenting the fates of those who passed through its doors.

Day 3

Art of the Weimar Republic and New Museum Design. Drive west to Grünewald and visit the Brücke Museum with its Expressionist art collection. Close by is Kunsthaus Dahlem, a NS-atelier turned post-war modern art and sculpture museum. Visit one of the very few museums in the world to be devoted to the art of the Samurai, amassed by businessman Peter Janssen. Return to central Berlin along Königsstraße, taking in the turn-of-the-century Grünewald villas and the Kurfürstendamm. 

Day 4

Art in Charlottenburg; the Reichstag. In the shadow of Charlottenburg  palace, the Berggruen Museum of classic modernism, Picasso and Klee in particular, ranks among Berlin’s finest galleries. The excellent collection of Expressionist works by Käthe Kollwitz is on display in new premises. Special access in the afternoon to the AEG Turbine Factory, a turning point in architectural history designed by Peter Behrens. Potent and symbolic, the Reichstag is a ponderous 1880s structure scarred by the vicissitudes of the 20th century, now brilliantly rehabilitated by Norman Foster and topped by the famous glass dome. We hope to gain special admission to the government art collection. Dinner is at the rooftop restaurant. 

Day 5

Memory. Berlin has engaged with its troubled history with as much energy as its dynamic present. Political scars are dramatically addressed in Bernauer Strasse at the Berlin Wall Memorial, by architects Kohlhoff & Kohlhoff. The Chapel of Reconciliation, replacing a 19th-century church cleansed from the former ‘death strip’, provides an ethereal monument (by Peter Sassenroth and Rudolf Reitermann and Austrian clay artist Martin Rauch). Fly from Berlin arriving at London Heathrow at c. 5.40pm.