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.
Worth seeing: the tent roof of the Sony Center, the preserved Wall segments on the square, the Panoramapunkt in the Kollhoff Tower and, on Leipziger Platz, the Mall of Berlin with the German Spy Museum right next to it. In February the square is the centre of the Berlinale film festival.
If you walk from Potsdamer Platz to Checkpoint Charlie you pass us automatically: Leipziger Straße east, right into Wilhelmstraße, and after three minutes you are at the Weltballon. The other way round, we are the last break before the glass façades.
Our tip
Potsdamer Platz, Topography of Terror, Typisch Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie makes a good morning on foot.
Frequently asked
How far is it from Potsdamer Platz to Checkpoint Charlie?
About 15 minutes on foot via Leipziger Straße and Zimmerstraße. Halfway are the Weltballon and our café at Wilhelmstraße 42.
Also nearby
- 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
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.
