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Wedding (Berlin) (Area) - Berlin, Germany

After World War II Wedding was part of the French Sector. Wedding was the western terminus of one of the first refugee tunnels dug underneath the Berlin Wall. It extended from the basement of an abandoned factory on Schönholzer Straße in the Soviet sector underneath Bernauer Straße to another building in the west. Though marvellously well constructed and its secrecy maintained, the tunnel was plagued by water from leaking pipes, and had to be shut down after only a few days of operation.

A section of the Berlin Wall has been reconstructed near the spot on Bernauer Straße where the tunnel ended. Two sections of wall run parallel to one another down the street with a strip of no man's land in the middle. A nearby museum documents the history of the Wall.

Today, Wedding is one of the poorest areas of Berlin, with a high unemployment rate (almost 26%). Almost 17% of the population live on social welfare; 27% live below the poverty line. Foreigners make up almost 30% of the population. Low rents accompany the poverty in Wedding so, like many inexpensive areas in large cities, it is home to a vibrant artists' community. Many galleries have been founded by artists to provide a space for themselves and their peers to show their work.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_(Berlin)

What is happening to the area is really similar to what is happening in the south with the area of Neukölln



Address: Berlin, Germany
Contact: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wedding+%28Berlin%29
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Friedrichshain

Friedrichshain is named after the Volkspark Friedrichshain, a vast green park located at the north border to Prenzlauer Berg. During the Nazi era, it bore the name Horst-Wessel-Stadt. It was formed in 1920 and after the WW2 was a large area of East Berlin. Nowadays the area is popular among students and punks mainly for its cheap rent, but there's also lots of good cafes and restaurants, especially around Boxhagener str area. Boxhagener Platz is the home to the famous weekly sunday market, where you can find lots of cool stuff and hang out on a square in the park.
Address: Berlin, Germany
Contact: http://wikitravel.org/en/Berlin/Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
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Museum Island

Museum Island () in Berlin, Germany is the name of the northern half of the Spreeinsel, an island in the Spree river in the centre of the city (the southern half of the island is called Fischerinsel (Fishers' Island)).

The island received its name for several internationally renowned museums that now occupy all of the island's northern half (originally a residential area dedicated to "art and science" by King Frederick William IV of Prussia in 1841). Constructed under several Prussian kings, their collections of art and archeology were turned into a public foundation after 1918, the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), which maintains the collections and museums today.

The Prussian collections became separated during the Cold War during the division of the city, but were reunited after German reunification except for the art and artefacts stolen after World War II by Allied troops and not yet returned; these include the Priam's Treasure, also called the gold of Troy, excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in 1873, then smuggled out of Turkey to Berlin.

Presently, the Museumsinsel and the collections are in the process of being reorganized. Since several buildings were destroyed in World War II and some of the exhibition space is in the process of being reconstructed, the information below is in a state of flux.

The oldest museum on the island is the aptly-named Old Museum (Altes Museum). It was completed on the orders of Karl Friedrich Schinkel in 1830. In 1859, the New Museum (Neues Museum) was finished, this time sccording to plans by Friedrich August Stüler, a student of Schinkel. It was completed in 1859.

Map of Museum Island (in red)

The Old National Gallery (Alte Nationalgalerie) was completed in 1876, also according to designs by Friedrich August Stüler, to host a collection of 19th century art donated by banker Joachim H. W. Wagener. In 1904 the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, today called the Bode Museum, was opened. It exhibits the sculpture collections and late Antique and Byzantine art.

The final museum of the complex was constructed in 1930, it was the Pergamon Museum, . The museum contains multiple reconstructed immense and historically significant buildings such as the Pergamon Altar and the Ishtar Gate of Babylon. In 1999, the museum complex was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.


Image:Bodemuseum.jpg|Bode Museum at the northern tip of Museum Island
Image:Neues Museum Aegyptischer Hof.jpg|The Egyptian courtyard from Neues Museum
Image:AlteNationalgalerie_1a.jpg|The Alte Nationalgalerie
Image:Pergamonmuseum Front.jpg|The Pergamon Museum
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Museum+Island
Address: Berlin, Germany
Contact: http://www.museen-berlin.de/e/loc/m.html
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Graefekiez

Graefekiez is a neighborhood in Berlin bordered to the North by the Landwehrkanal, to the South by Volkspark Hasenheide, to the East by Kottbusser Tor and to the West by the Urbankrankenhaus.

With the very attractive Graefestr. at it's heart, Graefe-Kiez is full of tiny cafes, plant stores, candy shops, record stores, pizza shops and bars in a cozy, tree-lined area with a feeling very much geared to outdoor living. There is a wide age range, with a retirement home existing within the middle of young families and even younger artists and students. As Graefe-kiez borders Neukölln and is directly next to the twice-weekly Turkish Market, there is also a highly visible Turkish community. The effects of gentrification can also be seen here, but it is a bit more calm than in Wrangelkiez.
Address: Metro: U-Bahnhoff Schönleinstraße‎, Berlin, Germany
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Wrangelkiez

Wrangelkiez is a neighborhood located in Kreuzberg, Berlin and is bordered in the Northwest by Skalitzer Straße, in the Southwest by Görlitzer Park, in the Northeast by the Spree river and in the Southeast by the Landwehrkanal. It has an above average percentage of young people, with 34.2% of the population falling within the ages of 18-35. It has a high immigrant population, especially Turkish and recently an influx of young, trendy 20-somethings from Western Europe and America. The neighborhood is quickly changing, with cafes, bars and boutique clothing and furniture stores replacing empty store fronts and the more traditional neighborhood spots.

While the effects of gentrification and its inherent creepiness are definitely evident, Wrangelkiez still retains a charming and pleasant energy. The streets abound with a diverse selection of small businesses (although this Summer saw one of the first corporate invasions with the opening of a Subway sandwich shop on Schlesischestrasse), and a sense of easy living pervades the area. It can become overwhelmed on the weekends with inebriated
youngsters, which, depending on your mood, can be awesome or awful.

All in all, an exciting area at the border of Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain where one can see first hand the rapidly changing face of Berlin.
Address: Metro: U Bahnhoff Schlesisches Tor (U1), Berlin, Germany
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Tiergarten

Tiergarten is the name of both a large park in the centre of Berlin and a locality within the Boroughs of Berlin of Mitte. Before German reunification, it was a part of West Berlin. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform, Tiergarten was also the name of a borough, consisting of the current locality of Tiergarten plus Hansaviertel and Moabit. A new system of road and rail tunnels runs under the park towards Berlin Hauptbahnhof in nearby Moabit.
Source: Wikipedia.org
Address: Berlin, Germany
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Grunewald Forest

Located in south-west Berlin this park has several lakes where it's possible to swim and a lot of walking routes. Quite busy on weekends, but the park is so huge, that it can be quite easy to get lost if one wants to.
Address: Grunewald, Metro: Grunewald s-bahn, Berlin, Germany
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Mitte

Mitte was the center of east Berlin and you can easily find it as the famous TV tower is right in the middle of Alexanderplatz.

It's a huge area that is often misunderstood. For some, it's where all the cool shops are, for others, that's the place to go for art galleries. Mitte has ugly but somehow romantic Soviet block houses, empty houses, huge abandoned pieces of land, super-expensive streets, and dirty corners. It's a huge area that seems to encompass a few cities in one.
You might hear "mitte fashion", which became an almost derogatory term for describing the local crowd, but one thing is for sure: if you want something a bit more fancy in this city that is not (too) tacky at the same time, Mitte is the place to go.

The best way to start exploring it is to walk from Alexanderplatz to Hackerschermarkt, then walk towards Torstrasse, have a coffee in a few cafes along the way, and then if you've got time walk towards Brunnenstrasse to experience the real local feel of the area.
Address: Mitte, Berlin, Germany
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Prenzlauer Berg

Right after the Berlin wall came down, Prenzlauer Berg was the area for former East Berlin. Alternative arts, activism, squatting movement, and everything else new that Berlin had to offer was in Prenzlauerberg.

Since then the area became hip, the landlords moved in, renovated the houses, the rent went up, squats transformed into semi-official house communities, artists moved back to Kreuzberg and other cheaper areas, and now it's all just a pretty postcard.

More than 15 years after its glory Prenzlauerberg boasts the highest ratio of families in Berlin and you can more often hear Americans than Germans here.

Having said that, the area is still cool and a few establishments retained the old feel to them. Kastanienallee is definitely the central street of the area, but also Senefelder platz and the area around Schoenhauser Allee is what real Prenzlauerberg is. Mauer Park hosts a great flea market on weekends (that became quite expensive though, thanks to its popularity and all the tourists). A great wine bar on Zionkirchplatz is a must-see. Various dance venues throughout the area (such as Dock 11 and ada Studio) have made this area the choice for dancers, who seem to come here in flocks from all over the world.
Address: Prenzlauerberg, Metro: U2 Eberswalder Strasse metro is the place to start for exploring Prenzlauerberg, Berlin, Germany
Contact: http:// http://playberlin.com/tag/prenzlauer-berg
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Kreuzberg

Kreuzberg to Berlin is what SoHo was to London. Before the wall came down, it used to be the most "alternative" area of West Berlin, home to the massive underground and punk movement and large Turkish community.

Throughout the years, Kreuzberg managed to retain everything that's original to Berlin. Those who travel to that city and go to Kurfustendamm (the main shopping street) or Alexanderplatz, miss the real feel of Berlin, that Kreuzberg has.

The coolest underground clubs, quirky cafes, green parks, Turkish kebab shops, lots of people on the streets – all that is Kreuzberg. In summer it's particularly nice, because lots of cafes organize mini open airs and it really feels like everybody lives outside.

The neighbourhood is quite inexpensive too, so a lot of artists and musicians choose Kreuzberg to be their home. However, it's not an expat enclave like Prenzlauerberg (another area in east Berlin) has become. Majority of people are still German and Turkish and there's something really authentic about the area.
Although places such as Schlesisches Tor (where most clubs are) is becoming more "hip", people are moving deeper into Kreuzberg, towards another up-and-coming Turkish area, Neukoelln.

Among areas recommended within Kreuzberg are Goerlitzer Park (and the nearby classic Morena cafe), Oranienstrasse (the central street of the area with lots of cafes, bars, and shops), Schlesisches Tor (most clubs), Graefekietz (a quiet family area with nice restaurants). The famous Bergmannstrasse has become somewhat of a joke, bio everything and home to tourists it's only park of Kreuzberg officially, but in reality it belongs to West Berlin yuppie crowd now.
Address: Oranienstrasse, Berlin, Germany
Contact: http:// http://playberlin.com/tag/kreuzberg
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