Rick Steves - Rick Steves Snapshot Berlin

SNAPSHOT

Berlin

This Snapshot guide, excerpted from my guidebook Rick Steves Germany, introduces you to the resurgent German capital. Once divided, now reunited, vibrant Berlin is racing into the future and re-emerging as one of Europes leading cities. Walk under the Brandenburg Gate and stroll up the boulevard called Unter den Linden, pondering the layers of history beneath your feet. Relive the Cold War as you follow the course of the long-gone Berlin Wall, while towering cranes above you erect glittering new skyscrapers. Dip into art museums for a look at classical antiquities and the famous bust of Queen Nefertiti. Then take a day-trip to Frederick the Greats palaces and gardens in Potsdam or the sobering concentration camp memorial at Sachsenhausen.

To help you have the best trip possible, Ive included the following topics in this book:

Planning Your Time, with advice on how to make the most of your limited time

Orientation, including tourist information (abbreviated as TI), tips on public transportation, local tour options, and helpful hints

Sights with ratings:

Dont miss

Try hard to see

Worthwhile if you can make it

No ratingWorth knowing about

Sleeping and Eating, with good-value recommendations in every price range

Connections, with tips on trains, buses, and driving

Practicalities, near the end of this book, has information on money, phoning, hotel reservations, transportation, and more, plus German survival phrases.

To travel smartly, read this little book in its entirety before you go. Its my hope that this guide will make your trip more meaningful and rewarding. Traveling like a temporary local, youll get the absolute most out of every mile, minute, and dollar.

Gute Reise!

Rick Steves

No tour of Germany is complete without a look at its historic and reunited capital. Over the last two decades, Berlin has been a construction zone. Standing on ripped-up tracks and under a canopy of cranes, visitors witnessed the rebirth of a great European capital. Although construction continues, today the once-divided city is thoroughly woven back together. Berlin has emerged as one of Europes top destinations: captivating, lively, fun loving, all-around enjoyableand easy on the budget.

As you enjoy the thrill of walking over what was the Wall and through the well-patched Brandenburg Gate, its clear that history is not contained in some book; its an exciting story of which we are a part. In Berlin, the fine line between history and current events is excitingly blurry.

But even for non-historians, Berlin is a city of fine experiences. Explore the fun and funky neighborhoods emerging in the former East, packed with creative hipster eateries and boutiques trying to one-up each other. Go for a pedal or a cruise along the delightful Spree riverfront. In the citys world-class museums, stroll up the steps of a classical Greek temple amid rough-and-tumble ancient statuary, and peruse canvases by Drer, Rembrandt, and Vermeer. Nurse a stein of brew in a rollicking beer hall, or dive into a cheap Currywurst. On the outskirts of town, at Potsdam, glide like a swan through the opulent halls of an imperial palace, and ponder the darkest chapter of this nations history at the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial (both covered in the next chapter).

Of course, Berlin is still largely defined by its tumultuous 20th century. The city was Hitlers capital during World War II, and in the postwar years, Berlin became the front line of a new global warone between Soviet-style communism and American-style capitalism. The East-West division was set in stone in 1961, when the East German government boxed in West Berlin with the Berlin Wall. The Wall stood for 28 years. In 1990, less than a year after the Wall fell, the two Germanysand the two Berlinsofficially became one. When the dust settled, Berliners from both sides of the once-divided city faced the monumental challenge of reunification.

Berliners joke that they dont need to travel anywhere because their citys always changing. Spin a postcard rack to see whats new. A 10-year-old guidebook on Berlin covers a different city. City planners have seized on the citys reunification and the return of the national government to make Berlin a great capital once again. When the Wall fell, the East was a decrepit wasteland and the West was a paragon of commerce and materialism. A quarter-century later, the roles are reversed: Its eastern Berlin where you feel the vibrant pulse of the city, while western Berlin seems like yesterdays news.

Berlin today is like the nuclear fuel rod of a great nation. Its vibrant with youth, energy, and an anything-goes-and-anythings-possible buzz (Munich feels spent in comparison). Berlin is both extremely popular and surprisingly affordable. As a booming tourist draw, Berlin claims to be Europes number-three attractionnow welcoming more visitors annually than Rome.

The History of Berlin

Berlin was a humble, marshy burgits name perhaps derived from an old Slavic word for swampuntil prince electors from the Hohenzollern dynasty made it their capital in the mid-15th century. Gradually their territory spread and strengthened, becoming the powerful Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. As the leading city of Prussia, Berlin dominated the northern Germanic worldboth militarily and culturallylong before there was a united Germany.

The only Hohenzollern ruler worth remembering was Frederick the Great (1712-1786). The ultimate enlightened despot, he was both a ruthless military tactician (he consolidated his kingdoms holdings, successfully invading Silesia and biting off a chunk of Poland) and a cultured lover of the arts (he actively invited artists, architects, and other thinkers to his lands). Old Fritz, as he was called, played the flute, spoke six languages, and counted Voltaire among his friends. Practical and cosmopolitan, Frederick cleverly invited to Prussia Protestants who were being persecuted elsewhere in Europeincluding the French Huguenots and Dutch traders. Prussia became the beneficiary of these groups substantial wealth and know-how. Frederick the Great left Berlinand Prussiaa far more modern and enlightened place than he found it. Thanks largely to him, Prussia was well-positioned to become a magnet of sorts for the German unification movement in the 19th century.

When Germany first unified, in 1871, Berlin (as the main city of its most powerful constituent state, Prussia) was its natural capital. Even in the disarray of post-WWI Germany, Berlin thrived as an anything-goes, cabaret-crazy cultural capital of the Roaring 20s. During World War II, the city was Hitlers headquartersand the place where the Fhrer drew his final breath. When the Soviet Army reached Berlin in 1945, the protracted fighting left the city in ruins.