SIGHTSEEING

Berlin offers an overwhelming amount of sights and historic monuments to the visitor, and it's not quite easy to decide what to see when your stay is limited. Culture is one of the dominant factors in Berlin, and the city sports a great diversity of opera houses, museums, theatres and orchestras that would each justify a visit. What is most striking about Berlin is the rapid pace with which the city changes its appearance. Almost all of the historic monuments were destroyed in WW II., so most of what the visitors can see today is rebuilt or restored. After the reunification of Germany, many gigantic new construction projects were realized, and the city today looks a lot different than a decade ago. The new Potsdamer Platz, once Europe's largest construction site and now a bustling center of the new Berlin, the Lehrter Bahnhof, the Jewish museum and many others have given the German capital a new look - and one that is generally regarded as symbolizing a new era for Berlin, as a newly emerged center of Germany instead of the insular oddity it was for almost 30 years. The rapidity of renewal has led to such curiosities as the fact that many relics of the GDR and the wall were first torn down and then had to be replaced by replicas when the city realized how immense the touristic interest in these things was. Today, Berlin presents itself as one of the most dynamic cities on the continent that manages the split between tradition and modernism with ease and draws much of its fascination from the two conflicting opposites. Find a selection of essential sights here: