Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
down very well too. A couple of things will entertain adults too - particularly a plastic
mini-brick reproduction of Berlin's main landmark buildings. Earmark at least a couple
of hours.
The DaimlerChrysler quarter
In the 1990s,
DaimlerChrysler
hired, among others, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers
to create an ensemble of mostly red-brick but otherwise disparate buildings that house
several restaurants, a theatre, a multiplex, a 3D big-screen cinema and the obligatory
shopping mall. he use of a variety of forms and facades is successful, but not that
stimulating at street level.
Panorama Punkt
Potsdamer Platz • Tues-Sun 11am-8pm • €5.50 •
W
panoramapunkt.de • U- & S-Potsdamer Platz
Soar above Potsdamer Platz in Europe's fastest, stomach-churning elevator to arrive at
Panorama Punkt
, the top floor of the complex's largest skyscraper. he views are among
the city's best - which you'd expect given the immense height and ideal central location -
and the exposed outdoor viewing deck provides an immediacy that you won't find at
the Fernsehturm, the other main contender.
Daimler Contemporary
Alte Potsdamer Str. 5 • Daily 11am-6pm • Free •
T
030 25 94 14 20,
W
collection.daimler.com • U- & S-Potsdamer Platz
he
Daimler Contemporary
art collection was set up in 1977 as a space for twentieth-
century art, initially mainly focused on German artists. he museum expanded in the
1990s with the inclusion of works by other European and American artists, including
Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons, and today the impressive collection includes approximately
1800 international works, showcased in rotating exhibitions across a large, attractive
space. Much of the collection and most of the frequent temporary exhibitions are
challenging and abstract. Ask for a leaflet or check out the website under “Sculptures”
for information and a map of the sizeable works dotted around the neighbourhood.
Meistersaal
Köthener Str. 38 • Occasional tours organized by Fritz Music Tours
T
030 30 87 56 33,
W
musictours-berlin.com •
W
meistersaal-berlin.de
• U- & S-Potsdamer Platz
A five-minute walk south of Potsdamer Platz is the
Meistersaal
, a former theatre that
became a West Berlin recording studio for record label Hansa. For many years an
almost neighbourless building set among overgrown fields, rubble and skeletal ruins -
and of course with a grand view of the Berlin Wall - it became known as “Hansa by
the Wall”. Its cheap prices - around a twelfth of London's Abbey Road in the 1980s -
and top-notch acoustics inspired scores of musicians - most famously David Bowie,
U2, Iggy Pop, Nick Cave and Depeche Mode.
Leipziger Platz
Created by Berlin's expansion in the early 1700s, the civilized and beautiful
Leipziger
Platz
was once almost as busy as Potsdamer Platz, thanks to the presence of shops
including Alfred Messel's
Wertheim
department store. What little of the platz that
hadn't been destroyed by the war was levelled in 1961 for the death-strip of the Berlin
Wall, leaving behind just an octagonal footprint as a reminder. he square's new series
of dreary seven-floor o
ce blocks in monotonous light colours look like a missed
opportunity to create something interesting.
Kulturforum
he
Kulturforum
offers a mixture of museums and cultural spaces that could easily fill
a day of exploring. Many of the buildings were designed in the 1960s - most by Hans
