Berlin

The tour starts at 4.30pm on Monday 14 October, at the Adina Apartment Hotel, Hackescher Markt.

The tour ends after breakfast on Friday 25 October, at Adina Apartment Hotel, Hackescher Markt.

The tour starts in the late afternoon. We’ll meet in the foyer for an orientation walk to become acquainted with the shops, cafes and bars of our lively district. We will also explore some of the area’s iconic street art. In the evening, we have a welcome dinner in a local restaurant. Overnight Berlin (D)

Berlin is today one of Europe’s most intriguing cities, evolving from a city divided between East and West to a unified melting pot of art, food, nightlife and politics. After an introductory talk on the early history of Berlin, we visit the iconic Reichstag, the seat of German parliament and a key building in Berlin’s story since its opening in 1894. We walk up Sir Norman Foster’s spectacular glass dome that has topped the building since 1999, learning about the building, its surrounds and the cityscape as we ascend. We then make our way to one of Berlin’s most notable landmarks, and the architectural symbol of Prussia’s power in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Brandenburg Gate, followed by a stroll along the Friedrichstraße to Gendarmenmarkt, arguably the city’s most beautiful square. After a break for lunch, we continue along Berlin’s main avenue, Unter den Linden, to see the major monuments and museums that line this grand boulevard. Returning to the hotel, the evening is at leisure. Overnight Berlin (B)

Friedrich Wilhelm IV described his vision for Berlin’s Museum Island as a cultural acropolis, a sacred sanctuary for the arts and sciences that would cement the Prussian capital as the Athens of the north. Today a UNESCO World Heritage site, Museum Island’s ensemble of venues represents the pinnacle of Germany’s museum collection, spanning 6,000 years of art and history. We begin today with a guided tour of the highlights of the Neues Museum (New Museum), home to the world-famous bust of Nefertiti, followed by free time for lunch in the connected James Simon Gallery. In the afternoon, we continue to the north side of Museum Island to visit the magnificent Bode-Museum, built in the Baroque Revival style and home to sculptures from the Renaissance to the Baroque. The late afternoon is free to continuing exploring or return to our nearby hotel. Overnight Berlin (B)

This morning we visit the newest cultural institution in Berlin – the Humboldt Forum. Part of the Berlin State Museums, it is situated in Schlossplatz which has seen more social, architectural, political and cultural changes over the last 800 years than almost any other site in Berlin. Originally a Dominican monastery, then Hohenzollern palace, a parade ground, and more recently Palace of the Republic during the Soviet era, the reconstruction of the baroque Berlin Palace now houses the Ethnological Collections and Museum of Asian Art as well a vast array of exhibitions highlighting the diverse history and nature of the site. After a break for lunch we then take the subway to the one of a kind Berlinische Galerie, located in a former glass warehouse. Founded in 1975 as an association for art lovers, this unique, Berlin-focussed, multi-disciplinary collection brings together fine art, photography and architecture. After touring the collection, we return to the hotel with time to freshen before tonight’s concert at the spectacular Berliner Philharmonie. Sakari Oramo leads the Berliner Philharmoniker in a program of Debussy and Busoni, accompanied by pianist Kirill Gerstein. Overnight Berlin (B)

Performance I
Venue: Berliner Philharmonie
Program: Claude Debussy, Trois Nocturnes; Ferruccio Busoni, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with Male Choir in C major, op. 39
Performers: Berliner Philharmoniker, Sakari Oramo (conductor,) Kirill Gerstein (piano), Men of the Rundfunkchor Berlin, Ladies of the Rundfunkchor Berlin, Gijs Leenaars (chorus master)

Following a morning lecture on Weimar Art and the Bauhaus School, we travel to the Kulturforum – a collection of cultural buildings built up in the 1950s and 1960s at the edge of West Berlin, after most of the once unified city’s cultural assets had been lost behind the Berlin Wall. The area is characterized by its innovative modernist architecture with the most famous being the recently restored Neue Nationalgalerie, designed by Mies van der Rohe. After visiting the collection of German Art we will visit the Bauhaus section at the Decorative Arts Museum. Following time for lunch in Potsdamer Platz, the afternoon is at leisure. Overnight Berlin (B)

We begin today with a walking tour of the Ku’damm district, which had, in the 1920s, been the centre of Berliner nightlife, and later became the heart of West Berlin. Our walking tour of the district ends with a visit to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial church, the concept shopping mall Bikini-Haus, and the Miettinnen Collection at Salon Dahlmann, named after the art-savvy family that acquired the house in 2010. After a break for lunch, we then travel to nearby Charlottenburg. This rococo palace - begun by Friedrich I of Prussia and completed by his grandson, Friedrich the Great – was inspired by Versailles and is a testament to the ambitions of the Hohenzollern dynasty to rival the older royal families of Europe. We also visit the nearby Käthe Kollwitz Museum that owns one of the largest collections of works by the German artist, who lived and worked in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg for over 50 years. This evening we enjoy a taste of German cuisine in one of Berlin’s excellent restaurants. Overnight Berlin (B, D)

Today is free for you to continue exploring the collections of Museum Island, only a short walk from our hotel. Your included museum pass will grant you entry across the across the entire complex, including the Altes Museum (Old Museum), a masterpiece of classicist architecture with a wealth of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman antiquities, and the Corinthian temple–shaped Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery), whose highlights include the recently restored paintings by Caspar David Friedrich. Please note, the Pergamonmuseum is currently closed for renovation – not expected to reopen in its entirety until 2037. This evening we regroup in the hotel and make our way to the opulent Staatsoper for a performance of Verdi’s Nabucco. Bertrand de Billy, widely acknowledged as a Verdi specialist, will conduct the impressive and powerful work. Overnight Berlin (B)

Performance II
Venue: Staatsoper Berlin
Program: Verdi’s Nabucco
Performers: Luca Salsi (Nabucco), Ivan Magrì (Ismaele), Anastasia Bartoli (Abigaille), Marina Prudenskaya (Fenena), Bertrand De Billy (Musical Director), Emma Dante (Director)

The rise and fall of the Third Reich left an indelible mark on Berlin and Berliners, felt even today. While much of the Berlin of this period was destroyed in the Allied air raids of 1944 and 1945, its traces continue to have a presence and a role in delineating historical memory. Today, after a morning lecture, we explore the Berlin of this period, beginning with a historical and architectural walking tour of the Wilhelmstrasse area, ending with a visit to the Topography of Terror. This museum and documentation centre constructed on the location of the former headquarters of the SS, SD and Gestapo, preserves the material remains of the site, and charts the different forms of oppression practiced by the Nazi party. This afternoon we will visit the Jewish Museum, housed in the famous building designed by Daniel Libeskind. The evening is at leisure. Overnight Berlin (B)

Today we take a step back in time to Potsdam, the residence of the kings of Prussia and the Kaisers. The town takes its current form from Friedrich the Great, who as the new King of Prussia, applied Enlightenment principles of order, harmony and man’s relationship to nature to shape a new capital befitting the newest king in the age of reason. Our tour begins at his summer residence, the UNESCO World-Heritage-listed Palace of Sanssouci. After exploring this masterpiece ensemble of architecture, sculptures and garden art, we enioy lunch together in Potsdam’s Old Town. In the afternoon we visit Cecilienhof Palace, where at the Potsdam Conference the allied leaders divided up Europe and set the borders of what would become the Cold War shortly afterwards. Upon return to Berlin, the evening is at leisure. Overnight Berlin (B, L)

Berlin’s division after WWII made it a symbol of the Cold War, and more recently a representation of a divided world that is the focus of several miniseries and docudramas in English and German. After a morning lecture on the period, we explore the divided city in detail. We begin at the Berlin Wall Memorial, located on Bernauer Strasse, where it extends along 1.4kms of the former border strip. The only section of the Berlin Wall to be preserved in its full depth, the Memorial allows visitors to see the various elements as it looked at the end of the 1980s. We then take a walking tour of the Alexanderplatz district. The centre of former East Berlin, the district has retained some of its socialist-era buildings, and recent developments highlight some of the complexities in the relationship between historical memory and urban development. After a break for lunch, we embark on a private guided tour of the former Tempelhof Airport, the lifeline of West Berliners during the Berlin Airlift of 1948/49. The main terminal building dates from the height of Nazi power during the late 1930s. We finish the day exploring Berlin’s thriving culinary scene as a local expert foodie takes us to the vibrant neighbourhoods of Kreuzberg and Neukölln, renowned as the ‘heart & soul’ of the city’s nightlife. Overnight Berlin (B, D)

The fall of the Berlin Wall is one of the most significant, and well-remembered, political events of the past 50 years. The dismantling of the wall, however, is no less remarkable than the speed of Germany’s revitalisation post-unification and the phenomenal rise of Berlin as the culturally cool, cosmopolitan heart of a new Europe. Today we explore the new Berlin, beginning with the recently-opened Swedish photography museum Fotografiska in the famous Tacheles building. The Tacheles was once a symbol of underground culture – an abandoned department store in Berlin’s Jewish Quarter where a group of young artists from East Germany created their own utopia. Evicted in 2012, with the promise to keep it as a cultural space, Fotografiska today hosts exhibitions from international and local artists. Following free time for lunch in one of the area’s trendy cafes, we spend the afternoon at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art. Housed in an erstwhile-margarine factory, this art institution strives to constantly push boundaries and experiment with new developments in contemporary art. We finish the day with a guided walk through the surrounding neighbourhood to seek out the turbulent history of the Jewish people in Berlin, before returning to our hotel. Tonight we farewell Berlin at one of the excellent restaurants in the nearby Hackescher Markt. Overnight Berlin (B, D)

The tour ends after breakfast this morning. Please check individual documents for onward travel plans. (B)