This is one of those grand European architectural locations. Once you get anywhere near this area,…read morewhat you will find are great cathedrals, beautiful buildings, and a very large square. The center point of this area is the large square. My suggestion is that you go and stand in the center of it, look around, and study its true uniqueness. What you will experience is one of the best places to view the grandeur of historic Berlin. Around this very large square, what you will find, (occasionally), is that they will have marketplaces. These marketplaces are usually seasonally orientated. Meaning, if it's Christmas season, you will find a great selection of Christmas orientated items. The main reason you come here is not so much simply to go shopping or dining, of which there are a lot of places to check out around the surrounding area, but to go inside some of the structures, and truly bask in the architectural glory of the statues, the way the buildings were constructed, and all of that kind of stuff. This isn't really a highly-touristy Berlin location. Which, is a good thing. Meaning, you can come here and really bask in a historic Berlin, which is deeply rooted in history. It will provide you with the true flavor and culture of Berlin. Overall, I would suggest that you do go here. You just need to know what to expect. There's not necessarily a lot to do, unless you truly appreciate the finer elements of architecture. But, it's a great place to visit.

One visits Gendarmenmarkt to take in the local flavor. There are beautiful buildings and sculptures…read moreto view and appreciate. People come here to hang out with their families and loved ones. I especially enjoyed looking at the expressions on the faces of the sculptures within the gates of the church. The artist truly captures a feeling. I walked here from the hotel I was staying at and enjoyed lunch in the immediate vicinity. It is a place to visit when in Berlin.

Rathaus Schöneberg is the city hall that in charge of the Schöneberg district. When it comes to…read morecivil services like identification, marriage registration and others, people will need to come here for that. The city hall building might look quite simple outside, but it has rich history. Former U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was here, as he was making his speech back then. Inside the city hall, there is Paternoster lift which still working. If you have the chance, give it try and snap some pictures for memories, but be careful with it. It also holds a flea market at the weekend in front of the buidling and a gorgeous park next to, to have a walk.

The Schoeneberg City Hall is famous for the being the place where JFK delivered his "Ich bin ein…read moreBerliner" speech in 1963. It also contains the Freiheitsglocke - the Freedom Bell, a gift from the American government - which is rung everyday at noon. The City Hall also has an exhibition called "Wir waren Nachbarn - Biografien juedischer Zeitzeugen" (in English: We Were Neighbors Once - Biographies of Jews in Schoeneberg and Tempelhof under the Nazi Regime), which contains biographies of Jews from the Schoeneberg and Tempelhof neighborhoods of Berlin. [The biographies were in German - only a few had short English translations contained within.] An interesting place to explore if you're in the Schoeneberg area.

Absurd is the first word that comes to Mind when recalling…read morethe ATMAN exhibition. For several reasons. First because of the incompetence of the staff and their attitude. The overweight women there didn't seem to serve much purpose at all, and when asked if there was a possibility to get a drink of water they would huff and puff and say there is nothing there. Ironic as they were sitting at the counter above which a sign saying "Wasser €0.50" was prominently displayed. But enough about the fat ladies and let me tell you about the exhibition itself. As said. Absurd. Unless of course you feel like communing with 20 other strangers in utter silence pretending to be sheep. Here's the concept: a dozen fairly good 2m/2m portraits are displayed in each a different room. In total darkness. You cannot utter a single word. You must stay with the crowd of strangers at all times and the aforementioned flock of sheep will stand one meter from the picture. So 25 people (1.8m tall) standing one meter from a 2 meter picture... I let you imagine the quality of the viewing. Sod it. I came for the pictures so I skip ahead to see them with the appropriate quality of viewing. Only to be severely reprimanded by the fat lady (the one with the moustache) for straying away by myself. I am sure the artist meant these pictures to be seen. Not guessed. What a waste of good work.

From the owner: Wir sind Gestalter eines Ortes, der durch Kreativität und Kultur geprägt ist und sich durch eine…read moreumweltbewusste Positionierung hervorhebt. Dabei verstehen wir uns als pulsierende Insel in einem großstädtischen Gewerbegebiet, die zu unkonventionellem Denken einlädt. Die gründerzeitlichen Klinkerbauten versprühen an allen Ecken ihren besonderen Charme und bieten Raum für neue Impulse und kreativen Dialog. Mit viel persönlichem Einsatz kümmern wir uns täglich um unsere Besucher, unsere Mieter und um die "große Rote".

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is a memorial that opened in 2005 and remembers the six…read moremillion Jewish victims of the Holocaust. It consists of the Field of Stelae designed by Peter Eisenman and the underground Information Centre. Admission is free. I did not go into the underground information center, but as part of a self-arranged group tour, I did walk among some of the 2,710 concrete slabs. My tour guide explained that the concrete slabs were hollow in the center and that the precipitation and cold weather was causing cracks in some slabs. I appreciated walking through and viewing the thousands of concrete slabs, which were artistically staggered, and remembering the Jewish victims.

Yelp asks "How would I rate my experience here and how many Stars would I give it?" After a couple…read moreof thousand reviews, I find we were completely speechless here. Later in our Viking trip, we visited both Birkenau and Auschwitz. Those visits and here, are bookends to horrors of hate and the decent into humanities worst period of cannibalisms. I phrase it like that, because the people of that period, consumed and devoured the living nightmare of hate, as if it was to purge the world of group(s) of people they just didn't like, didn't understand and wanted to eradicate. So this place is a memorial of their memory, but also a reminder of what happens, when we allow Hate to devour our humanity and our souls. Five Stars and hopefully, never again! But I/we know better.... Seattle, Christopher Straße Tag...

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was heavily bombed towards the end of war. What's left, is a…read moreliving memorial to the violence and destruction that the allies wrought upon this city. This church was a casualty but also a focal point for Berliners to rebuild. Sadly, when it comes to churches, everyone has their own opinion... which is why today, the ruins stand as a testimony to the destruction of the Second World War. But! The citizens did build a beautiful Kirche next to the ruins. The discussions are ongoing, on the next phase of the rebuild. Some eighty-five years after the end of the fighting. See the many, many photos of both the New, and old Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche. The new octagon sanctuary is magnificent! May I suggest you plan your visit around enjoying its beauty, splendor and peaceful solitude. You'll thank me later.

This is a review of the buildings and their setting alone; I'm not reviewing the church as a…read moreworshiping, political, or theological body. If you visit Berlin, you must visit the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. The old church was built in the 1890s and largely destroyed by Allied bombing in 1943 during World War II. Like St. Nicholas Church in Hamburg, the ruins of the old church have been preserved as both a memorial and a statement against war and its devastating effects on society. Locally, it's referred to as The Hollow Tooth. The ruins are striking from a distance--especially the damaged spire--but they have removed the other parts of the church at very right angles so that when you're standing right next it, it doesn't feel like the result of bombing but, rather, construction. The new church's horrid bell tower and main building itself being right next to the old church (on either side) doesn't help either. Inside the old church, there are informational panels about the history and destruction of the church. There are also three important artifacts: a damaged statue and two crosses. The statue is of Jesus, and it used to be on the main altar of the church before it was destroyed. The first cross is made of nails that came directly from the roof of Coventry Cathedral in England, which was damaged by German bombing in 1940; there's so much symbology, both secular and religious, in the fact that the German damage to a British church became a gift of peace to a German church damaged by British bombs. The second cross is an icon donated by the Russian Orthodox Church, also highly theologically charged, as Soviet forces obliterated large eastern portions of the city (and raped scores of German women) during the Battle of Berlin, which ended the war in Europe but also led to the partition of the city between east and west and further untold suffering of its civilian population; in my mind, this cross is less an expression of pure solidarity among nations and more solidarity among different sects of Christianity, as the Soviet Union was officially an atheist country that was virulently and violently anti-religious, and it actively repressed the Russian Orthodox Church and all other churches. (One of my great uncles [probably technically a cousin] was a Jesuit priest who survived being sent to the labor camps in Siberia.) From the outside, the new church is only interesting because of its scale. A totally random visitor might ask Why did they build such a huge boxy glass thing right next to this old ruin, and what's inside? When I first went inside, though, it was one of the most striking transitions I've ever experienced, and I've been to many churches. The stained-glass windows comprise these tiny square panes, which you can see from the outside but which look like plain glass blocks rather than beautiful liturgical art. And maybe that's the point; Jesus didn't come as a conquering king but as the child of a poor family. What looks ugly and plain from the outside is breathtaking inside. It's a good reminder for all of us, especially those of educated in Jesuit institutions, to find God in all things, no matter how off-putting or insignificant-seeming. The floor tile is also beautiful and really well done. Almost everything about the interior of the new church is interesting at first and even better when you've spent some time looking at it. The old and new churches have a prominent location on the Kurfürstendamm, a huge street with lots of shops in Breitscheidplatz, south of the world-famous zoo. When the city was still divided, this was Berlin's city center, but within all of reunited Berlin, it's part of the Zoo Quarter, which is in the western part of the city. It still feels important, but I can imagine that especially at the height of the Cold War the damaged church spire was a constant reminder of what could happen again at any moment. As it's easy to imagine, damaged buildings require a great deal of maintenance so that they don't collapse completely. In another sign of former enemies reconciling, one of the champions of raising money to maintain the old church's structural integrity was Charles Jeffrey Gray, a former British bomber pilot who flew bombing raids over Berlin during World War II.