BERLIN IS OFTEN CITED AS a Capital of Cool – it certainly hums with the countercultural energy that creative types and people in search of themselves thrive on – but it is also a capital of reinvention, a place where change is constant.

More than most cities, Berlin carries the weight of a turbulent past and a promising future. Historians and tour guides will point to the milestones of a city that has a starring role in the history of the modern world. For years, famous people and ordinary Joes flocked there to see for themselves if anything goes. It did then, and it does now. Dictators, directors and drag queens made names for themselves here – their fortunes inextricably linked to this city by the Spree (the iconic waterway that runs through the capital).

Reunification and revival

Symbols of war and peace, conflict and reconciliation, are essential to the Berlin experience. This is a city that was almost totally destroyed by bombing during World War II, then divided for almost three decades by the Berlin Wall before it fell in 1989, taking the Cold War along with it. Reunification led to reconstruction and revival. Bullet-riddled buildings became concrete canvases for street art, and spies and bureaucrats made way for artists and musicians bringing tolerant attitudes and alternative lifestyles.

Once-drab neighbourhoods such as Mitte, Kreuzberg and Prenzlauer Berg in the eastern sector are now among the most sought-after places to work and play in. Nightlife, entertainment and the food scene – featuring new German cuisine – are booming. “Ich bin ein Berliner,” US President John F Kennedy famously remarked when he visited in 1963. First-time visitors, drawn into the city’s inspirational orbit, will want to be Berliners too.

Before Germany became a unified nation in 1871, it comprised a loose conglomeration of 300 principalities, bound together by Germanic language. “Berlin is a very young capital, it’s a new city, vibrant and welcoming,” says Stefan Albrecht, a specialist architecture guide. “Don’t expect ancient temples.”

Re-development over the past three decades is one obvious sign of the city’s dramatic transformation. New buildings have sprouted up in place of ruins. Some stand side by side. “Buildings can be old, new or a mix of both,” says Albrecht. In various districts, art and architecture, history and culture merge together to form an amorphous whole. It’s all there for visitors to discover.

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Arts and architecture

Located in north-eastern Germany, Berlin emerged from low-lying marshland, with its highest point just 65 metres above sea level. A bird’s eye view of the city reveals a vista of parks and forests, lakes and waterways, and neoclassical-style buildings that never rise above 25 metres. The reason for this, says Albrecht, is that 19th-century fire ladders could reach only up to 25 metres.

Yet Berlin is nothing if not monumental, thanks to a series of historical buildings (often with modern-day additions) and landmarks that define city and country. Most are within walking distance of the centre. Heading the list is the Brandenburg Gate, a monument to peace commissioned in the late-18th century by King Frederick William II of Prussia. “The gate is the symbol of Germany – all the important events in the country took place here,” says Albrecht.

Another major landmark, the Victory Column, towers above the treeline in the Tiergarten, the large inner-city park and namesake central district that is Berlin’s answer to Hyde Park or Central Park. Topped by a golden statue of the winged goddess Victoria, the column was built to commemorate German victories in the mid-19th century.

There are over 170 museums in Berlin, but the star attraction is Museum Island, a cluster of five world-class museums built between 1830 and 1930, featuring art and antiquities from pre-history to the 19th century. The museums suffered from war damage and neglect, but a long-term master plan to renovate and extend the complex was activated in 1999.

Four of the buildings are linked by a modern visitor centre (the James Simon Gallery), designed by architect David Chipperfield and opened in 2019. The Pergamon Museum, showcasing collections of ancient art and reconstructions from Greek and Roman antiquity, is a favourite. But hurry – it closes in late October for a 14-year renovation.

The Altes Museum (Old Museum) was designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, a city planner who envisaged the island as an acropolis of the arts. His architectural legacy includes several of Berlin’s most important buildings. The neighbouring Neues Museum (New Museum) houses perhaps the single most famous exhibit in Berlin: the painted limestone bust of Egyptian queen Nefertiti, dating from 1340 BC.

Chipperfield has been dubbed the new Schinkel because of his ongoing contribution to Berlin’s architectural renaissance. Thanks to new builds and add-ons by him and a roster of brand name peers, post-reunification Berlin has been reimagined and revitalised. Change has brought its critics, but there’s no denying the impressive visitor numbers.

In 2021, Chipperfield completed the renovation of the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery), a museum for modern art. The glass-encased building, the plaza it sits on and the sculpture garden adjoining it were built in 1968 by Modernist great Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

The Reichstag, a 19th-century government building that serves as the seat of Germany’s federal parliament, was rebuilt and transformed a century later by adding a glass dome (designed by Norman Foster) to symbolise German reunification. In contrast, the Holocaust Memorial is a stone’s throw away, a sombre field of concrete slabs arranged in a grid-like pattern. “You have to free the truth, embrace the past, and move on,” says Albrecht.

Famous Berliners

Berlin and big names go together hand in hand. Albert Einstein, Marlene Dietrich and David Bowie were all Berliners at some time in their lives. Christopher Isherwood’s novel Goodbye to Berlin spawned characters in the film Cabaret. The city inspired them and newer generations to speak their own truths in movies, music, books and more.

Bowie’s classic 1977 song Heroes was written about two lovers on opposite sides of the Berlin Wall. The city was still on his mind years later in a contemplative 2013 song, Where Are We Now? He sings relatable stuff about boarding a train at Potsdamer Platz and being “lost in time near KaDeWe”, the Berlin equivalent of Harrods department store.

Bowie was high on Berlin and, inevitably, visitors are as well – seduced by its creative spirit and feeling hopeful in spite of its dark past. Whether you’re here on pilgrimage, exorcising demons or collecting new memories, this is a city that simply won’t be ignored.