8 Things to See on a Weekend in Berlin | Easy German 472

Today we want to find out which places you should see if you only have a weekend in Berlin To find out which places they are we have invited Michael today Michael is a tour guide in Berlin an absolute Berlin expert and also a YouTuber Because Janusz watches Michael's channel all day to learn more about the history of Berlin Michael what's your channel's name The channel is called Berlin erleben and naturally focuses on Berlin its history and its attractions And I'm even trying to speak calm and clear standard German Also you can use it to learn German because everything is also translated into 15 languages with subtitles Who can read along and listen at the same time Wow you've chosen some stations for us today and we'll visit them now and then you'll have some tips for your weekend in Berlin Let's go Michael our first stop is the classic Reichstag Why should one visit this place It's very easy one of Berlin's main attractions It's easily accessible Also in that direction is the main station which is a ten-minute walk from here you can still pass by the Chancellery and take a look And the Reichstag offers a special attraction you can go up into the dome and see Berlin from above Then one should register online first Correct Because you don't get high spontaneously you have to have a timeslot booked online preferably a month in advance and can then go up and enjoy a wonderful view of Berlin from above Michael this place behind us everyone knows it really everyone the Brandenburg Gate What is the story of this place I could talk for half an hour or much longer I'll keep it short It's one of 18 city tours that Berlin had Berlin had a city wall until 1868 but it was the main entrance to Berlin The model was the Propylaea in Athens the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens But it's a Greek-Roman mixture so on top we have the Quadriga the horse-drawn chariot There is a little story about it it was actually stolen Do you have any idea who No Napoleon who occupied Berlin in 1806 had it dismantled and brought to Paris This wagon Four years later it was restored to power in triumph And the Berliners then called it the "Retourkutsche " And if you ever want to learn more about this place's story you also have an entire video about it on your YouTube channel Two And more are coming because that's just the place And one thing must certainly be added it was a symbol of division Also where we are standing now one could not go between 1961 and 1989 except for special guests The road ahead was blocked and the wall was behind the gate It is not visible anymore today all the buildings are new But it was the symbolic place of Germany and Berlin We'll link to the entire story here at the top of the video You can watch it again after this video Okay sure Michael our third stop takes us to the Holocaust Memorial This is a quite large special monument right in the middle of the city Tell us about this place Yes you just can't seem to avoid it It's like this big stumbling block In Berlin you simply come across history everywhere There are simply multiple layers of history Here one is also reminded of our dark history which also existed in Berlin And this is the official Holocaust Memorial There was a discussion as early as the 1980s about wanting something like that The journalist Lea Roos and a historian have said that there were concentration camps in Germany They only remind us of the murdered German Jews And that was only 5% Also the majority of Jews were murdered Especially in Poland In the Russian territories In all occupied areas And there should be a monument in a central location in Germany for them as well That was the statement After the reunification there was the opportunity to create this And there were two competitions A American won Peter Eisenmann The result here is 2711 concrete pillars The height ranges from 0 to 4.70 meters But it is completely abstract No symbolic meaning The architect said that what happened cannot be captured in words or pictures Everyone should come go through it think for themselves about the story and form their own opinion But there are information rooms underneath Five rooms The most important room is the room of names The names of murdered Jews will be read aloud With a brief biography Some sentences projected on the walls If one wanted to read out all the names it would take almost seven years Shows the scale It's about not forgetting people and remembering them We can recommend this place to you on our tour What happens next with our route Michael We are already in the middle of the border strip We are now driving along the border strip past the Potsdamer Platz Walk past the wall and then to Checkpoint Charlie the former border crossing Imagine a wall to your right and a wall to your left for the next time Earlier in the past If you imagine the wall again Today she's gone thank God I can show you pictures of how it looked We took a short lunch break and continued along the former course of the wall We have seen a lot Where did we drive by Michael We drove by an original section of the Wall That naturally stands on its own And yet there is no impression of what the border looked like before That is why we are here now at the former Checkpoint Charlie And we have practically painted a picture of how it originally looked A bit compressed by an artist This is a life-sized painting in the rotunda behind us But we won't go into that now we'll just take a quick look at this And here you can see both walls There were actually two One that ran entirely around West Berlin 155 kilometers long And additionally a second wall spanning 43 kilometers between the two halves of the city Between the border strip also known as the death strip Every 250 meters a watchtower with border soldiers Here is the second one already Then patrol path tank obstacle wrapped with barbed wire Grab Also insurmountable By the end of the 1970s no one had managed to escape from this system And you can also see the unsanitized buildings Berlin looks completely different today Here one really gets a vid impression of the situation in the 1980s There was still a punk movement down there in West Berlin People this picture reminds me of a scene from my own life I visited a friend in Berlin in 1988 And of course we visited the Wall And were standing on such a stage And I could look over That was right across from the Brandenburg Gate And I still remember how dejected were How threatening sad and hopeless everything looked Michael we are now at an ultra-touristy place here I don't like going here much Why should one still stop by here Or when Well everyone knows the place The Checkpoint Charlie Allied foreigner and diplomat border crossing Spy drop zone Especially in the 1960s A James Bond movie was filmed here There was a tank confrontation between Soviet and American tanks here So there is a lot of history here And there is also an outdoor exhibition where you can see the history of the Cold War outside and a few interesting pictures Where can one find the outdoor exhibition It's in that direction Also the outdoor exhibition is on the other side here from the small replica of Checkpoint Charlie And this house is it still the original house No it's a replica It no longer exists in its original form Then there is something a bit larger This is in the Allied Museum And this one was recreated What is this This is a conference bike That means you can ride a bike while talking and looking at the city It's also about beer bikes Yes I know those too Last question This picture who is that Yes the one you can see behind us is no specific person That was the idea of an artist So there were eight border crossings And for each one artists were invited to develop an idea Here was the idea It was in the direction of the Soviet sector to take a Russian soldier There is an American on its back Because we are in the former American sector of Berlin Our next stop is the Gendarmenmarkt One of the most beautiful places in Berlin And I have absolutely no idea about the story But that's why we have Michael Exactly Gendarmenmarkt the French name It dates back to the Huguenots Believers from France The man who was based in Berlin after the 30 Years' War End of the 17th century And Berlin has always been an immigrant city And it still is actually And we have the French Church here Built in 1705 for the Huguenots And this one This is the German Reformed Church But the two towers came 80 years later Also the small buildings are the churches and the towers 1785 as well We also have the French Cathedral Behind us is the German Cathedral Two churches on a square Yes there were the Huguenots who had migrated Then there were the German Reformed And other movements as well There are plenty of churches in Berlin And in the middle of the square there is also a beautiful place This is the current concert hall Originally built as a theater 1821 Karl Friedrich Schinkel Remember the name when you come to Berlin The city's most prominent architect And none of this can be seen today It was a wasteland after the war Everything rebuilt again It was quite severely damaged until the day And actually rebuilt again from the 1980s Finished only in 1995 Michael we are currently stopped at an underground monument What is that exactly It reminds me of the book burning We are here at the Bebelplatz Around us are the entire baroque buildings from the time of Frederick the Great But on May 10 1933 the book burning took place here in the square More than 20 000 volumes were thrown into the flames And that serves as a reminder Underground bookshelves are visible on the walls of an inaccessible underground room They could hold 20 000 books but are empty Symbolizing the loss of books Incredible I am truly amazed And what concerns me here is that these books were burned 100 meters or 200 meters before a university Directly opposite Humboldt University And it was mainly students involved who burned it Michael were just talking about how maybe not everyone in the whole world knows What the book burning story was What was that actually Yes as I said this happened in May 1933 Mostly students participated They were books by famous German authors liberal authors communist authors and Jewish authors But those who did not fit into the ideology of the Nazis Rather they were considered as Bolshevik cultural heritage And they wanted to practically eliminate it And only German paperwork We are moving further east and are now on the Museum Island What is this place The Museum Island is actually an island between two arms of the river Also we have five museums that are part of UNESCO's World Heritage you can look at it in complete peace Half day full day as you like But at the same time we have a place here where you can relax very nicely You can lie down on the grass here if you are tired And at the same time see many impressive buildings around Also just behind us is the Berlin Cathedral with the family crypt of the Hohenzollerns The place you can look at there If you look further in that direction you'll see the TV tower Easy to use for orientation Tallest building in Germany at 368 meters now They are looking towards the founding site of Berlin Also you can see the tower of the Red City Hall Berlin was founded around that time about 800 years ago And now the center of Berlin is back in focus here It looks like the castle but it's no longer a castle But we used to have the castle It is now a modern building It was opened last year with the historic facade on three sides So that you get a sense of how it looked here before and how the buildings related to it And it's a spot where you can go up to the rooftop terrace When they didn't manage it at the Reichstag for example and has a wonderful view of Berlin And that's free It's free on top There are some free exhibitions and then museums where you have to pay admission We have five museums in there now How many museums are there in total on the Museum Island here There are also five major museums here And there are five exhibitions here in the Humboldt Forum so ten in total Berlin has around 170 museums Also you could come to Berlin for half a year Look at a new museum every day if you want Here you get another overview of the Museum Island Here you can see the Spree And in the center is this island with the five large museums the square where were just now the cathedral o the old castle the present-day Humboldt Forum Janusz has one more secret tip for you Top secret Yes I was completely taken aback I had already been with a group of students years ago still I went by boat through the canals in Berlin It's incredible how many of them are right in the middle of the city and how much you can see from the boat of Berlin And if you are with a group of friends as well and maybe with a nicely brewed beer then it's unforgettable We recommend you book a boat here There are also guided boats where you learn and listen But sometimes you can also rent small boats yourself and then just drink beer That's really fun After all the historical highlights in the city center we have now driven into a real Berlin neighborhood Also in a neighborhood where you can see cafes pubs and meet people on the street And we have chosen a place we know well which is why we can recommend Prenzlauer Berg to you Janusz what do you associate with this place We often go for walks here every week actually With a microphone in hand and talking to people And we love this place more than anything And if you ever spend a weekend in Berlin you must of course come to the place where Easy German is filmed We do this very often here on Oderberger Street on Kastanienallee and in the surrounding streets And there you might just run into me once in a while right Let's hope so yes Michael can you tell us something historically about this area Prenzlauer Berg Yes until the middle of the 19th century this was the windmill hill There stood many windmills but not much else Then the area became very densely built up Working-class housing area with rental barracks Families lived in one- or two-room apartments with 5 10 and more people No bathroom toilet in the yard very poor conditions And then they started building public baths so people could wash themselves And then there were also bathtub rooms where then the father would come into the water en the mother and then the children have used the same water one after another to get clean Delicious We are now actually standing in front of such an old bath which still exists today This was built in 1902 I think It was closed in the meantime Due to construction reasons Various attempts were made to revive it Until 2008 the owners of the language school Those with whom you also collaborate have taken it over They have turned it into a swimming pool again It is simultaneously a hotel and an event area And you can still go swimming here today Janusz has already decided for weeks that he would like to go swimming every day here But he hasn't done it yet It would be nice if he did it sometime Can you try it here at the Hotel Oderberger The old city bath is accessible today And you can just go swimming for two hours and buy a ticket without staying there And enjoy the old architecture and the special atmosphere that you have inside Michael at our last stop we are surrounded by the smell of cannabis on a green hill What's the deal with this place We've arrived at the former border area again Here is the so-called Mauerpark which was kept free from the border area Here is a flea market every Sunday with karaoke and many stalls There is more besides cafes and restaurants And you can walk up Bernauer Straße to the Berlin Wall Memorial To provide a very good documentation on the former border system This needs to be mentioned again This park was once a border strip It divided Berlin You couldn't go here Today it is a park where people hang out where there is a flea market and where families are on weekends It's nice that things have changed like this The border guards probably couldn't have imagined this before What's going on here today Thank you Michael You're welcome gladly We hope we could give you a little inspiration What you can watch on a weekend in Berlin There are many places that you can visit We showed only a small selection today with our personal highlights We could make more videos Leave us a comment if you want to learn more If you want to learn more about Berlin You should check out Michael's channel which we will display again here and link below There is an in-depth video about most of the places we visited today Are there any more videos I promise to the points where I haven't made any yet I will send them over That is a fantastic offer And these videos can also be found with subtitles Michael speaks German and you can see that in up to 15 languages in the subtitles This is a great offer for learning German and getting to know Berlin What else do you have to say for the conclusion Have a lot of fun learning German I'm looking forward tonight Today is Friday and I spend a very quiet and cozy evening at home My heartfelt thanks It was really great making a video with you It made me very happy We also enjoyed it Thank you Michael Thank you for watching Goodbye see you soon