Not to miss

Bauhaus Archiv/Museum fur Gestaltung

The Bauhaus Archive/Museum of Design is devoted to the members of the Bauhaus School, who laid the basis for much of contemporary design and architecture. Founded in Weimar by Berlin architect Walter Gropius, it aimed to unite art with everyday functionality, from doorknobs and radiators to the layout of entire districts and apartment blocks.

Walter Gropius himself, the founder of the Bauhaus school (1919-33), designed the avant-garde building housing the Bauhaus Archive/Museum of Design, whose gleaming white shed roofs look a bit like the smokestacks of an ocean liner.

Exhibits behind this striking silhouette document the enormous influence the Bauhaus exerted on all aspects of modern architecture and design. The collection includes everything from study notes to workshop pieces to photographs, models, blueprints and documents by such Bauhaus members as Klee, Kandinsky, Schlemmer and Feininger. Prized collection highlights include the original model of Gropius' 1925 Bauhaus building in Dessau and a reconstruction of Lázló Moholy-Nagy's kinetic sculpture Light-Space-Modulator, a clever kinetic sculpture that combines colour, light and movement.

Reichstag

Just north of the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag has been the seat of the Bundestag (German parliament), since 1999 following a complete renovation by Lord Norman Foster. The British architect turned the 1894 building by Paul Wallot into a state-of-the-art parliamentary facility, preserving only the historical shell and adding the glistening glass dome.

The view from the top is one of the highlights of visit to Berlin, as much for the 360-degree panorama of the city as for the close-ups of the dome. From the outdoor viewing platform you can climb the spiralling ramp inside the dome itself. At the top, displays document the building's history.

The Reichstag has been the setting of numerous milestones in German history: the proclamation of the German republic, the Reichstag fire in 1933 allowing Hitler to blame the communists and seize power, the Soviet attack a dozen years later which destroyed the building, and the enactment of the reunification of Germany on 2 October 1990.

Brandenburger Tor

The restored landmark Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate), a symbol of division during the Cold War, now epitomises German reunification. It was against this backdrop in 1987 that then-US president Ronald Reagan uttered the now famous words: 'Mr Gorbachev - tear down this wall.' Two years later, the Wall was history.

The gate's northern wing contains the Raum der Stille (Room of Silence), where the weary and frenzied can sit and contemplate peace.