Tapped for a global finance meeting in Berlin this September. If you have one day there, what do you see?
Tom
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oh man Tom, only one day?!? my uncle has lived there since before the wall came down and i've visited a few times.
if you're only there for one day, that kind of eliminates a day trip to Potsdam palace or Sachsenhausen concentration camp (imo).
Mitte is kind of the central downtown where everything is. You probably have to stop and see Unter den linden / Brandenburg gate / Pariser Platz / Reichstag, but try not to spend too much time there as it's just a tourist trap with buskers and whatnot. It's a pleasant 1 mile walk west through the Tiergarten to see the Victory Column. Mitte also has lots of upscale hotels, restaurants, and a ton of museums (Neues Museum is my rec if you're going to a museum). I've been up in the TV tower and you can skip that if you've been up in the STL arch. Berlin is very flat and not particularly scenic but it is a cool POV for the 19th century residential architecture.
A little to the south of Mitte, Neukolln is a really cool neighborhood to walk around, lots of shops/cafes/bars/restaurants, plus you can take a rest/stroll through the giant park that used to be Templehof airport. If you are there on a Tuesday or Friday definitely go through the Turkish market at the north end of Neukolln. just to the east of Neukolln is a pretty wild Soviet war memorial/enormous monument in Treptower Park.
Generally it's a cheap city with a grimy international hipstery/weirdo aesthetic. if you're expecting liederhosen and beer steins it's not really that. if you just walk around and enjoy the sights and sounds and history you can't go wrong. The u-bahn and s-bahn are very convenient and easy to navigate, so if you're staying downtown it's only a few stops to Neukolln for example. and definitely don't leave Berlin without getting a doner kebab