Berlin-Charlottenburg Travel Guide
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Berlin-Charlottenburg Overview
Charlottenburg is a locality of Berlin (Berlin vacation rentals | Berlin travel guide) within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen Sophia Charlotte (1668-1705). It is best known for Charlottenburg Palace, the largest surviving royal palace in Berlin, and the adjacent museums.
Charlottenburg was an independent city to the west of Berlin until 1920 it was incorporated into Groß-Berlin
(Greater Berlin) and transformed into a borough. In the course of Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was merged with the former borough of Wilmersdorf becoming a part of a new borough called Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Later, in 2004, the new borough's districts were rearranged, dividing the former borough of Charlottenburg into the localities Westend, Charlottenburg-Nord and Charlottenburg. In addition to that, Charlottenburg features a number of popular kiezes. Charlottenburg celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2005.
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Things to See in Charlottenburg
Museum Berggruen for classic modern art
Museum Scharf-Gerstenberg for surrealist art
Deutsche Oper Berlin (Berlin vacation rentals | Berlin travel guide) on Bismarckstraße, opened in 1912, one of the three Berlin opera houses with relief in memory of Benno Ohnesorg by Alfred Hrdlicka, 1971 (installed in 1990)
Theater des Westens musical theatre on Kantstraße, built in 1896
The old and new Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on the Breitscheidplatz, built in 1895 by Franz Schwechten and in 1961 by Egon Eiermann, the former West Berlin landmark
The Europa-Center, Berlin's first shopping mall opened in 1965
Bahnhof Zoo, the main railway station in Berlin until the opening of Berlin Hauptbahnhof in 2006
The adjacent Berlin Zoological Garden, opened in 1844, officially located on the territory of the neighbouring Tiergarten locality
Kurfürstendamm avenue, first laid out about 1542, today together with the Tauentzienstraße Berlin's main shopping area
[ source: wikipedia ]
Maps and Driving Directions to Berlin-Charlottenburg
Berlin-Charlottenburg
[ source: Flickr]
Popular Points of Interest in and near Berlin-Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg Palace
[ source: Wikimedia ]
Charlottenburg Palace today is the largest residence of the Hohenzollern in Berlin. Originally built by Elector Frederick III as a summer residence for his wife Sophie Charlotte in 1699, the palace was later extended into a stately building with a cours d`honneur. It is located in the Charlottenburg district of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf area. It includes much exotic internal decoration in baroque and rococo styles. A large formal garden surrounded by woodland was constructed behind the palace. In the grounds of the palace various buildings were erected, including a belvedere, a mausoleum, a theatre and a pavilion. During the Second World War the palace was badly damaged but has since been reconstructed. The palace, its gardens and the buildings in the grounds are major visitor attractions.
Hours: April - October: Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 6pm. November - March: Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 5pm.
Admission: Adults 10 €, Concessions 7 €, includes tour or audio guide.
Beggruen Modern Art Gallery
Heinz Berggruen’s collection, opened to the public in 1996, is one of Berlin’s most popular modern art galleries, situated opposite the Schloss Charlottenberg. Its modernist highlights include works by Picasso, Klee, Matisse, Braque and Giacometti. The core exhibition entitled Picasso and his Times
dedicates three floors to the artist's paintings, sculptures and drawings. Over 100 examples of Picasso’s work are exhibited from early student sketches, to the Blue and Rose period with his Seated Harlequin
, from the dramatic Cubist years right up to the year before his death in 1973. As well, 60 of Paul Klee’s works from 1917 onwards cover a creative lifespan of over twenty years.
Other exhibits of note are Giacometti’s sculptures and some of the African artefacts which inspired 20th century Modernists. The collector Heinz Berggruen died in 2007 and is buried in Berlin-Dahlem.
Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 6pm.
Admission: Adults 8 €, Concessions 4 €.
Museum for prehistory and early history
[ source: Wikipedia ]
The Museum for prehistory and early history, part of the Berlin State Museums, is one of the major archaeological museums of Germany, and among the largest supra-regional collections of prehistoric finds in Europe. It is located in the former theatre building by Carl Ferdinand Langhans, next to Schloss Charlottenburg, and encompasses six exhibition halls on three floors. Apart from a permanent exhibition, it regularly houses temporary exhibits. Attached to the museum is a specialized library on prehistoric archaeology with over 50,000 volumes. Furthermore, the museum houses the Commission for the exploration of archaeological collections and documents from northeast Central Europe, a project for the study of ancient Egyptian calendars, and a number of other bodies.
Hours: Monday - Wednesday and Sunday 10am - 6pm. Thursday - Saturday 10am - 8pm.
Related Sites
We collected some useful links related to Berlin-Charlottenburg. If you know a few more sites not listed here, or also know some insider tips or point of interests for this destination? Please share and submit your Germany travel tip. If approved it will be shown on this page!
- Homepage of Berlin-Charlottenburg: Berlin (official home page)
- Wikipedia: Berlin-Charlottenburg
More about the History of Berlin-Charlottenburg
On the land occupied by Charlottenburg there were three settlements in the late Middle Ages: the farmsteads Lietzow (pronounced leat-tsov) and Casow (pr. caasov) and a further settlement called Glienicke (pr. gleanicke). Although these names are of Slavic origin, the settlements are likely to have had a mixed Slavic and German population. Nevertheless after 1945 the Kurfürstendamm area quickly regained its importance, as with the partition of the city in the Cold War it became the commercial centre of West-Berlin. It was therefore the site of protests and major demonstrations of the late 1960s German student movement, that culminated on June 2, 1967 when student Benno Ohnesorg was shot by a police officer during a demonstration against Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi at the Deutsche Oper, where the Shah together with President Heinrich Lübke and Mayor Heinrich Albertz attended The Magic Flute
. After 1990 German reunification Charlottenburg struggled with the rise of the Mitte borough as Berlin's historic centre, though today the City West
is still the main shopping area, offering several major hotels, theatres, bars and restaurants.
[ source: wikipedia ]
What makes this Live Like a German Berlin-Charlottenburg Travel Guide special...
This Berlin-Charlottenburg travel guide provides you with an overview of Berlin-Charlottenburg, Berlin-Charlottenburg pictures, and a local travel guide that suggests many special trips, unique activities, and vacation ideas, that you can't find in a typical Germany travel guide.
Some of this information is compiled from popular and well-known sources (e.g., such as Wikipedia, Wikitravel, and great pictures from Flickr). However, what makes this Germany travel guide special is that most of the travel suggestions and insider tips are provided by local residents, property owners, and our readers, who share and submit their travel tips with us. All submissions are then editorially reviewed to ensure high quality. All this information is logically organized within this destination guide to make it easy for you to find things quickly.
In addition, the Berlin-Charlottenburg destination guide features restaurant recommendations, restaurant reviews, where to go for grocery shopping, sports activities, getting around, cultural events and highlights, entertainment, and health related information - so you are informed for your travel to Germany, and you can learn about all the cool things you can do during your Germany vacation!
