Sights around the Weltballon
Our café is at Wilhelmstraße 42, exactly where the Wall stood until 1989. Within five minutes you reach Checkpoint Charlie, the Topography of Terror, the Trabi Museum and the asisi Panorama. Here is what is worth it, how far it is and when best to go.
Up to five minutes on foot
- right next door
Weltballon (World Balloon)
Tethered balloon, 150 metres above Berlin
The Weltballon is the big white tethered balloon you can see from half of Berlin. It takes off at the corner of Zimmerstraße and Wilhelmstraße, right next to our café.
Read more - approx. 5 min walk
Checkpoint Charlie
The most famous crossing point of the Wall
From 1961 to 1990 Checkpoint Charlie was the crossing point for foreigners, diplomats and Allied soldiers between East and West Berlin. Today a replica of the guard house stands on Friedrichstraße, with the famous sign “You are leaving the American sector”.
Read more - approx. 5 min walk
Topography of Terror
Documentation centre on the former Gestapo and SS site
Between Niederkirchnerstraße and Wilhelmstraße stood, until 1945, the headquarters of the Gestapo, the SS and the Reich Security Main Office. Today a documentation centre with open-air grounds tells the story of the perpetrators of National Socialism. Admission is free.
Read more - approx. 5 min walk
Trabi Museum
The car of East Germany, up close
The Trabi Museum on Zimmerstraße shows the Trabant in all its versions: saloon, estate, open “Kübel”, racing version and conversions. Plus original adverts, brochures and stories about waiting years for your own car.
Read more - approx. 5 min walk
asisi Panorama “The Wall”
360-degree view of divided Berlin in the 1980s
In a rotunda right at Checkpoint Charlie, artist Yadegar Asisi shows a panorama of divided Berlin on a fictional autumn day in the 1980s. You stand in Kreuzberg and look over the Wall into East Berlin.
Read more - approx. 6 min walk
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Exhibition hall in Renaissance style
The Gropius Bau is one of Berlin’s most beautiful exhibition halls. Opened in 1881 as a museum of applied arts, it now hosts major temporary exhibitions on art, photography and cultural history.
Read more - approx. 3 min walk
Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus
Former Reich Aviation Ministry, now the Finance Ministry
The huge stone building at the corner of Wilhelmstraße and Leipziger Straße is the largest surviving Nazi-era building in Berlin. Today it houses the Federal Ministry of Finance, and you walk straight past it on the way to Potsdamer Platz.
Read more
Ten to fifteen minutes
- approx. 10 min walk
Potsdamer Platz
Sony Center, Panoramapunkt and Mall of Berlin
In the 1920s the busiest square in Europe, after the war wasteland in the death strip, after 1990 the city’s biggest construction site. Today it has high-rises, cinemas, the Sony Center and the Panoramapunkt with the fastest lift in Europe.
Read more - approx. 12 min walk
Gendarmenmarkt
Concert hall between the German and French cathedrals
The Gendarmenmarkt is considered Berlin’s most beautiful square: the Schinkel concert hall in the middle, the domed towers of the German and French cathedrals on either side. In Advent it hosts one of the city’s best-known Christmas markets.
Read more - approx. 15 min walk
Jewish Museum Berlin
Libeskind building in Kreuzberg
Daniel Libeskind’s zigzag building is itself the first exhibit: sloping floors, empty voids, the Garden of Exile. The permanent exhibition tells the history of Jews in Germany from the beginnings to today.
Read more
A morning on foot
Start at Potsdamer Platz, along Leipziger Straße to the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus, down Wilhelmstraße to the Topography of Terror, back to us for a coffee, then up in the Weltballon and along Zimmerstraße to the Trabi Museum, the asisi Panorama and Checkpoint Charlie. A good two kilometres in total, about three hours without museums.
Frequently asked
Which sights are right at the Weltballon?
Right at the balloon: our café. Within five minutes on foot: Checkpoint Charlie, the Topography of Terror with its Wall section, the Trabi Museum, the asisi Panorama “The Wall” and the Martin-Gropius-Bau. Ten to fifteen minutes: Potsdamer Platz, Gendarmenmarkt and the Jewish Museum.
Where can I take a break between Checkpoint Charlie and Potsdamer Platz?
At Typisch Berlin, Wilhelmstraße 42, corner of Zimmerstraße. The café is exactly halfway, with seating on two floors, toilets and Wi-Fi.
Which sights nearby are free?
The Topography of Terror including the Wall section, the replica guard house and the open-air exhibition at Checkpoint Charlie, the memorial at the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus, the permanent exhibition at the Jewish Museum and the exhibition in the German Cathedral on Gendarmenmarkt.
How do I reach the Weltballon by public transport?
U6 to Kochstraße, then five minutes west along Kochstraße. Bus M29 to Wilhelmstraße/Kochstraße. From Potsdamer Platz it is a ten-minute walk.
Coffee before, cake after
Typisch Berlin, Wilhelmstraße 42, right at the Weltballon. Daily from 09:00, two floors, Wi-Fi, toilets, terrace. Berliner from €2.20.
