As the IPD Program comes to a close and we finish Humboldt courses, I’m starting to realize something interesting from the pictures I’ve been taking for the last two months—I’ve climbed a lot of buildings. I don’t mean exclusively rooftop restaurants and Lokals, but these peaks have been some of the high points of this trip. (*groans for the obligatory dad joke*)
Berlin is very spread out. I’m not going to dance around it: it’s a wide city. What would be called “walking distance” in any other major city is extended by a factor of 4x here; thank Gott the public transportation is so efficient, it seems like every Berliner makes ample use of it in their daily life. But I digress. My point is that Berlin is spread out with a lot of smaller buildings. Small by urban standards: as a global city and a European capital, the lack of skyscrapers is uncanny. So, when you find somewhere that’s marginally higher than the rest of the city, you can see for miles around this giant of a city.
This might not be unique to Berlin, as I had similar experiences in Dresden and Weimar, but it was interesting nonetheless.
Dresden from the Frauenkirche
Frauenkirche in Dresden
Buchenwald Concentrations Camp Memorial near Weimar
I’ve posted photos from my favorites in Berlin, but they’re all spectacular and worth the visit.
An obligatory shoutout to the TV Tower starts off this list, and it was one of our first excursions in the program. This kicked off our time in Berlin—coffee, cake, and meeting the people we would be living with for the next two months. It’s hard to believe how long ago that looks now.
TV Tower (Fernsehturm)
View from the TV Tower, less than 1/8th of the city
The Berliner Dom is, just—wow. I can’t describe this massive cathedral any better than my pictures, but it’s pretty on the outside, gorgeous on the inside, and spectacular for taking in views of the city.
Berliner Dom
Despite my first two choices, my hands-down favorite place from which to see Berlin is the Sieggesäule (Victory Column) in the center of Tiergarten. It may not be as high as the TV Tower or as gilded as the Berliner Dom, but I fell in love with this landmark as a crossroads for Berlin. First built in Prussia, it stands for the unification of Germany into an upstart nation at the turn of the 20th century and its struggle to find its place on the world stage. It’s in the middle of Tiergarten, which is itself quite central to Berlin. From the top you can see the TV Tower and Soviet-inspired downtown in the Eastern part of the city as well as Potsdamer Platz and the shopping-based downtown in the Western part of the city. To me, it feels like the Nexus for the entire city, and my time in Berlin would not be complete without it.
Me, gripping a railing far too hard
Victory Column on a morning jog
Traveling helps us see new perspectives, literally and figuratively. You cannot understand a city without having a well-based cultural perspective. Likewise, the physical beauty of a city cannot be captured in a photo or a memory, it has to be lived and experienced. And I am incredibly lucky to have experienced this city.
Recap coming soon, until then.
Robert Babich