I have been visiting Berlin for over 30 years. This is why it’s Europe’s most exciting city, from great art and immersive museums to an unparalleled music scene

Berlin has been a trading post, a military barracks, a center of knowledge, an industrial powerhouse, a hotbed of debauchery and a control center for the worst horror experiment known to man. No other city has had so many faces, suffered so many disasters and reinvented itself so often. For much of its existence it has been dismissed as ugly, uncivilized and extreme.

But now the good news: Berlin is simply the most exciting city in Europe. Admittedly, I’m biased. I have lived there or visited for more than thirty years – first as a young journalist based in the communist East, where I watched the fall of the Wall and reunification. If you’re looking for great art, great museums, quirky places to eat and drink, as well as a great music scene – classical and modern – then it has few rivals.

Whether you go for a weekend, a week or longer, Berlin has a lot to offer, but plan carefully as some of the best places are not in the center.

If you’re lucky with the weather – summers are usually blissful, winters are refreshingly cold – you can see as much as possible on foot or by bike. Get enough sleep beforehand.

You can spend days in one of the five museums on Museum Island.

John first visited Berlin as a young journalist based in the communist East, where he witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall (the remains of which are pictured) and its reunification

Neues Museum, redesigned by British architect Sir David Chipperfield, contains classical antiquities. The Old National Gallery is filled with great masters such as Rodin and Renoir. Don’t confuse it with the New National Gallery, which exhibits art banned by the Nazis as degenerate.

But my favorite quirky culture spot is a new, small gallery located in a former gas station in the Schoneberg district. It is called The Kleine Grosz and is dedicated to artist George Grosz, who specialized in decadent caricatures from the famous Weimar era of the 1920s.

Berlin’s most famous landmark is of course the Brandenburg Gate. Shortly after its construction in the late 18th century, it became a symbol of humiliation when Napoleon and his soldiers marched through the columns and looted most of the city’s art, including the bronze quadriga that stood on top.

Above is the Kleine Grosz Museum, dedicated to artist George Grosz, who specialized in decadent caricatures from the famous Weimar era of the 1920s

John recommends spending an afternoon in the central park, Tiergarten (above)

Lively: ‘Berlin is above all about fun,’ writes John. Upstairs is the sundeck of Club der Visionaere, one of the bars in the Kreuzberg district

Spandau Citadel, pictured, ‘has an astonishing display of battered and bruised statues from over the centuries, including Lenin lying off to the side’

It was a site for unification then, for Nazi marches, for division (it was in no man’s land when the Wall was built) and now for the new era. On one side is the Reichstag, the parliament with its glass dome built by Sir Norman Foster. On the other side the main boulevard, Unter den Linden, named after the lime trees. One side of the street is dominated by the sinister Russian embassy. Berlin is haunted by its dark history and yet many buildings look as if they have no history due to wartime bombing. That is why memorials are so important. You often have to steel yourself for what you see, but two of them are particularly moving.

Housed in the grounds of the former SS headquarters, The Topography Of Terror uses photographs and documents to illustrate the horrors of Nazi tyranny.

The communist dictatorship is also commemorated in a number of places, not least in the Stasi Museum. This refers to the East German secret police who monitored the entire population using high-tech gadgets (for their time) and millions of snitches who reported on everything their neighbors or colleagues did or said. All the different hidden cameras and listening devices are explained in great detail.

But let’s move on, because Berlin is mainly about fun, hanging out in cafes, having brunch on the weekend, dancing in the clubs, spending an afternoon in the central park (Tiergarten), or swimming in the lakes on the outskirts of the city. edge of town (avoid those that target naked swimmers – they are not a pretty sight).

A good way to get to know the city is to focus on individual neighborhoods. Each of its kiez (the term comes from the original Slavic inhabitants) has its own identity and fierce local pride, and many have beautiful central squares. My favorites are Savignyplatz, where Western journalists had their offices during the Cold War and frequented the many local pubs; and Chamissoplatz, a warren of cobbled streets in the quieter part of the Kreuzberg district, where TV crews seem to be forever filming costume dramas.

This square is located close to Berlin’s most eccentric meeting place (and that’s saying something): Tempelhof. This vast area of ​​empty, flat land dates back to the time of the Knights Templar and the founding of Berlin, 800 years ago.

It was in turn a parade ground for imperial soldiers, a stage for Nazi rallies and the airstrip the Americans used to save West Berlin when it was blockaded by the Soviet Union in the late 1940s. Since reunification, locals have blocked plans to redevelop it, so it has been a place where people come to cycle, skate and picnic for years.

It is said, although I have not seen it, that a man has been known to walk around it with his lonely sheep. If true, it speaks volumes for one of the most diverse, complicated yet captivating cities in the world.