Berlin/Mitte

Mitte, literally meaning "the middle" and being a contraction of Stadtmitte (city centre), contains the historical heart of Berlin and represents in many ways the real centre of the city. It is here that you will find the vast majority of the most popular sights.

"Mitte" can refer both to a larger district (Bezirk) and its smaller borough (Ortsteil), which was a separate district until 2001 when the administrative division of Berlin changed. This guide focuses on the smaller Ortsteil Mitte and the Ortsteil Tiergarten, both of which belong to Bezirk Mitte.

Tiergarten is the borough extending northwest from the Zoologischer Garten train station, taking its name from the large park that covers most of its area, which in turn takes its name from the world's oldest zoo in its southern end, close to the train station. On the outskirts of the park there are many little neighbourhoods of varying characters, detached from each other by the park.

For other Ortsteile contained within the present-day Bezirk Mitte see Berlin/City West (Moabit and Hansaviertel) and Berlin/East Central (Wedding and Gesundbrunnen).

The border between the Ortsteile Mitte and Tiergarten runs right across the Potsdamer Platz, and most of the buildings and institutions described here are actually in Tiergarten, but for the sake of making this guide more useful are described along with the others which fall in Mitte proper. For points of interest lying further West, see Berlin/City West.

Administrative division
Before the reunification of Germany, Mitte was a district of East Berlin and the place where the Berlin Wall was most prominent, running right through the historic fabric of the city. Following reunification, the old administrative division was kept for a decade, and the Mitte's borders were unchanged, but it merged with neighbouring districts of former West Berlin, Tiergarten and Wedding.

In 2001, Mitte, Tiergarten and Wedding were merged into a new district, called Bezirk Mitte. The former districts became localities (Ortsteile) of the Bezirk Mitte. This may lead to confusion, as both the Ortsteil and Bezirk are referred to as "Mitte" in the common parlance. Most Berliners would refer to "Mitte" as the Ortsteil and former district, which is smaller and more cohesive. Location touting hotels and restaurants may however advertise their location within "Berlin-Mitte" instead of the Ortsteil.

This guide oversteps the boundaries of the Ortsteil Mitte and includes Ortsteil Tiergarten as well.

Areas of Mitte
The old district Mitte as covered in this guide can be divided into several neighborhoods:
 * Unter den Linden &mdash; the main boulevard, from Museum Island to Brandenburg Gate, crossing the main shopping street, Friedrichstraße, half-way along.
 * Museumsinsel (Museum Island) and Lustgarten (the square in front of the Altes Museum and adjacent to the Berlin Cathedral).
 * Nikolaiviertel &mdash; a quarter near Alexanderplatz which comes close to old town style, but built by the East German government.
 * Spandauer Vorstadt with Scheunenviertel &mdash; The Spandauer Vorstadt is located north of the River Spree and the Hackescher Markt. It is bordered on the north by the east-west course of the Torstraße, on the east by Karl-Liebknecht-Straße and by the northern part of Friedrichstraße to the west. The eastern part of the area takes its name Scheunenviertel (the "Barn Quarter") from the move in 1672 by the Great Elector of all the hay barns out of the fire-prone city centre. In the late 19th century, the area became a refuge for Jews fleeing persecution and pogroms in Russia and Poland. By then it was the centre of Jewish life in Berlin.
 * Potsdamer Platz &mdash; the area around the completely razed Potsdamer Platz became no man's land between East and West Berlin and remained an empty strip of land until the 1990s, when it was rebuilt as a large project including striking highrises of concrete and steel, mixing offices and commercial space.
 * Spreebogen/Regierungsviertel &mdash; "Spreebogen" means "the bow of the river Spree" and in Berlin generally refers to a particular one, where the Spree meets the Berlin-Spandau Canal. The area around it houses the German federal government's institutions on the south (or left) bank, called Regierungsviertel ("government district"), while directly opposite it you will find Berlin's all-new central train station Hauptbahnhof.

Get in
Mitte regained its position as the main point of entry to Berlin in June 2006 with the opening of the new central station, a giant palace of glass and steel, which is at the border of Mitte and Moabit. Almost all short- and long-haul trains arrive and depart from this station. Hauptbahnhof is also served by a Straßenbahn (tram) line and by the S-Bahn as well as the subway line U5. Other main public transport stations are Friedrichstraße and Alexanderplatz.



By S- and U-Bahn
Mitte is served by many S- and U-Bahn lines. The, and  go from north (Oranienburg and Gesundbrunnen) to south (Potsdamer Platz and Schöneberg), the Stadtbahn (city S-Bahn, line  5, 7, and 75) goes from west (Charlottenburg) to east (Friedrichshain). They cross at Friedrichstraße. U-Bahn line connects Mitte with Charlottenburg (west) and Prenzlauer Berg (northeast), the U-Bahn lines  and  go north to Wedding and south to Kreuzberg and Neukölln. was finally extended all the way to Hauptahnhof in December 2020 although the station Museumsinsel will be passed without stopping for the time being - an opening date was tentatively set for summer 2021 during the December 2020 opening celebrations of the U5 extension.

The most important stations are:


 * / &mdash; For Gendarmenmarkt and Friedrichstraße.
 * / &mdash; For Gendarmenmarkt and Friedrichstraße.
 * / &mdash; For Gendarmenmarkt and Friedrichstraße.
 * / &mdash; For Gendarmenmarkt and Friedrichstraße.
 * / &mdash; For Gendarmenmarkt and Friedrichstraße.
 * / &mdash; For Gendarmenmarkt and Friedrichstraße.

By tram (Straßenbahn)
The Berlin Tram used to be limited to East Berlin from the 1960s until shortly after reunification, but these days a "Tram Reconquista" is slowly but surely connecting parts of the old west to the network. Hauptbahnhof is now served by several tram lines and the red-red-green (leftist/centre-left) coalition in power as of 2021 has made a public commitment to more tram construction in West Berlin.

By bus
One of the best, and most cost-effective, ways of exploring Berlin is riding one of Berlin's over 400 double-decker buses. You can enjoy great views, especially if you get to sit in the front, at just the cost of a bus ticket. There are two lines especially developed with tourists in mind - the 100 and 200 - as well as some MetroBus lines (replacing the tram system dismantled in West Berlin), both of which are generally operated using double-decker buses. The buses generally operate every 10 minutes and you may rely on their punctuality except for extreme rush hours, but there are diversions due to the frequent construction works in Berlin. Check the current Fahrplan at bvg.de, the bus stops and on the bus. There is a good chance all important notices will be posted in English just as well. These buses do not operate in the night (a separate, different night buses network does) and that there is no guarantee, just a very high chance, that you will get to ride a double-decker bus.
 * line 100 (see route map) goes from Alexanderplatz through Unter den Linden, through the Regierungsviertel and then further through the Tiergartenpark to the Zoologischer Garten train station in the former West Berlin
 * line 200 (see route map) starts in Prenzlauer Berg in East Berlin, then goes via Alexanderplatz and Unter den Linden following line 100, but then turns south and drives through Leipziger Platz, Potsdamer Platz and the Kulturforum ultimately taking you to Zoologischer Garten train station over a slightly different route
 * line M48 also starts at Alexanderplatz, but goes along Leipziger Straße (convenient for Checkpoint Charlie), Potsdamer Platz, Kulturforum and the into Schöneberg in West Berlin
 * line M85 takes you from the Hauptbahnhof through the Regierungsviertel, along the Brandenburg Gate and the Holocaust Memorial into Potsdamer Platz, Kulturforum and ends up in Schöneberg as well.

The cost of a day pass on all forms of Berlin transit within zones A and B (including the Tegel airport) is €7 (full tariff as of October 2019), which is less than most "hop-on" bus tours on offer and gives you much more flexibility and better access due to the multitude of lines and stops. The downside is that some lines get pretty crowded in rush hours, and no buses are open-top.

Museumsinsel

 * Part of the Antikensammlung (Collection of Classical Antiquities) &mdash; The most spectacular part of which is the reconstructed façade of the great altar of Pergamon. There is also the perhaps even greater Ish-Tar gate of Babylon, from centuries BC, which is reconstructed together with a stretch of the procession way.
 * Vorderasiatisches Museum (Museum of the Ancient Near East)
 * Museum für Islamische Kunst (Museum of Islamic Art) with the façade from Mshatta and the Aleppo Room.
 * Museum für Islamische Kunst (Museum of Islamic Art) with the façade from Mshatta and the Aleppo Room.





Alexanderplatz and Alt-Berlin
The square used to host a cattle market (Ochsenplatz). It was named after the Russian Tsar Alexander I when he visited in 1805. It rose to prominence in the 19th century following the construction of a railway and gradually became the eastern focal point of Berlin. The bustling area around the square was immortalized by Alfred Döblin in a monumental novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929). The novel has been adapted into film twice, with the newer adaptation the 1980 Rainer Werner Fassbinder 14-hour behemoth being the better known by far.

The Alexanderplatz area was largely destroyed during the Second World War and redeveloped by socialist city planners as the new centre of East Berlin. The vast expanses of open spaces and large, imposing examples of modern architecture provide for a very different feel than the part of Mitte located across the Spree. Incidentally, the areas directly southwest of modern-day Alexanderplatz were the places where the city of Berlin originates from (Alt-Berlin), and many remains of that can be found interspersed between the modern architecture of the quarter.

Two of the highest buildings in Berlin, the Fernsehturm and the Park Inn hotel, dominate today's Alexanderplatz, while historic buildings such as the Rotes Rathaus, Marienkirche and the Nikolaiviertel flank its sides.


 * Berlin Aussichten vom Dom asv2023-02 img01.jpg
 * Berlin Aussichten vom Dom asv2023-02 img01.jpg
 * Berlin Aussichten vom Dom asv2023-02 img01.jpg
 * Berlin Aussichten vom Dom asv2023-02 img01.jpg



Potsdamer Platz and Kulturforum


The Potsdamer Platz and the neighbouring Leipziger Platz were important squares in pre-war Berlin, but were almost entirely razed during the Second World War, and in the aftermath they became a strip of no man's land separating East and West Berlin. To bring together the disjointed city, a large-scale project was initiated after the German reunification to fill in the empty space with large, impressive and modern buildings, housing corporate headquarters, commercial and entertainment venues and upscale apartments. Around the turn of the 21st century, Potsdamer Platz was the biggest building site in Europe by some measures. Today, the Potsdamer Platz is a major draw for tourists and a lively hub of Berlin.



Immediately west of Potsdamer Platz begins the Kulturforum, an ensemble of buildings housing cultural institutions built on the outskirts of the former West Berlin, as most of the seats of former cultural institutions of Berlin remained in the East. The buildings of the Kulturforum represent the various bold styles of architecture of the 1950s and 1960s.



Private art galleries
As Berlin is a city of art, it is quite easy to find an art gallery on your way. They provide a nice opportunity to have a look at modern artists' work in a not so crowded environment for free. Some gallery streets in Mitte with more than about a dozen galleries are Auguststraße, Linienstraße, Torstraße, Brunnenstraße (all north of S-Bahn station Oranienburger Straße) and Zimmerstraße (U-Bahn station Kochstraße). A directory listing of all Mitte's art galleries can be found on Berolin Art.



Theater
Germany is one of the countries in the world where there is strong political consensus that "high culture" ought to be available even to those of little means, so publicly subsidized theaters abound. Naturally those are especially plentiful in the capital and the most famous ones are almost all in Mitte. During the Weimar Republic Berlin was among the most innovative places in theater and many names still known to the average German in the 21st century were active in this theater scene. Some of their old stomping grounds survived the war or were rebuilt afterwards, so why not enjoy a Brecht piece the way Brecht wanted it staged at a theater Brecht worked at?

Cinema

 * During summertime you can enjoy an open-air cinema in front of the Altes Museum, showing alternative movies (most of them in original language). It's very wise to buy tickets for the "Sommerkino" in the afternoon if you don't want to join a long queue at night with the chance of not getting a ticket.

Department stores and shopping centres




Budget














Splurge




Sleep
Accommodation in Mitte mostly caters for the backpacker or business traveller so the mid-range market is small. When you intend to travel for a trade fair, prices tend to rise fast but not as bad as in Frankfurt. During off-peak times, the splurge hotels offer substantial discounts that bring down the price to mid-range level (€120 per night is offered sometimes), so check carefully upfront for special offers.