The Free University was founded in 1948 in what was then the American Sector of Berlin. The reason was that the venerable Humboldt University happened to be in the Soviet Sector, and had been taken over by the Soviet military government. Non-communist students had trouble even enrolling there, much less Read More …
The Jewish Museum in Berlin tells the story of the Holocaust, of course, but also of the two thousand years of German Jewish history that went before. There are vivid, detailed exhibits on fourteen historical periods, from the beginnings through the Middle Ages and up to the present, designed to Read More …
This highly unusual memorial consists of 2,711 concrete slabs or “stelae” arranged in a grid pattern on a slightly sloping ground occupying an entire city block of 19,000 square meters. You can enter and walk through the field from all four sides and experience the wave-like form of the stelae Read More …
This canal is called the Neukölln Ship Canal (Neuköllner Schiffahrtskanal). As the name implies, it runs through Neukölln, which is one of the twelve boroughs or districts of Berlin. From the end of the Second World War in 1945 until German reunification in 1990, Neukölln was part of the American Read More …
This ten-kilometer canal through the center of Berlin was built in the nineteenth century (1845-1850) to provide additional transportation capacity parallel to the Spree River, which at that time had more boats and barges than it could handle. Today the canal is used mainly by sightseeing boats, two of which Read More …
The former Tempelhof Airport, best known as the landing place for American supply planes during the Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949, is now a public park. Since the old runways are still intact it’s a great place for cycling, inline skating and jogging. Also there is plenty of space for kite-flying, Read More …
If you ever have the duty of naming a new museum, you would be well advised to call it something else, rather than “The New Museum”, because 165 years later it might still (or again) be there and not be as new as it once was. The same goes for Read More …
After years of bickering, scandals and cost overruns, Berlin finally has its modern new Main Station (Hauptbahnhof), built from 1993 to 2006 on the site of the old Lehrter Station that had not been used since 1952. The new station has tracks on two different levels. Upstairs is the traditional Read More …
Kiez is a somewhat emotionally charged word in Berlin dialect. It means your neighborhood, your distinctive small part of the city where you feel at home and people know you in the pubs. This is a word that does not exist in southern Germany, and in northern Germany it means Read More …
The German Mehrwertsteuer (MwSt) is what the British call Value Added Tax (VAT). The Australians I think call it a Goods and Services Tax (GST) and in the States we just call it a plain old Sales Tax. In Germany this tax comes in two flavors: 19 % for most Read More …