Berlin has been through quite a bit of history from the devastation of the Second World War to almost 40 years of divided East and West Berlin by the construction of the Berlin Wall during the Cold War. Although it has been about 30 years since the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany, Deutsche Demokratische Republik, or DDR) and reunification of West and East Germany, you can still visit historical landmarks associated with the Berlin Wall era. Besides these historical sights, Berlin is also known for its excellent museums – almost 170 of them and there is even an island of museums called Museum Island (Museumsinsel). During my short 5D4N trip in Berlin with Scoot (yes! Scoot now flies direct from Singapore to Berlin!), besides trying 11 different interesting dining experiences in Berlin, I had also checked out over 8 historical sights and museums in Berlin.
If you like to visit museums, then this is the post for you as I will provide you with a quick overview of what you can see in these 8 historical sights and museums around Berlin. To get started, I strongly recommend that you buy the Berlin WelcomeCard which gives you access to all public transport (buses and U-bahn and S-bahn) as well as discounts on selected tours and museum. If you are going to visit a number of museums, I also recommend that you buy the 3-day Berlin Museum Pass (29 Euros) which provides you with free admission to over 30 museums for 3 consecutive days – see this link for the list of museums covered by the Berlin Museum pass.
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DDR Museum (located at Karl-Liebnecht-Straße 1 facing the back of the Berliner Dom cathedral is the DDR Museum). DDR stands for Deutsche Demokratische Republik which was what East Germany was called back then. The DDR Museum truly lives up to its slogan – “History You Can Touch”. It is the only museum dedicated to life in the former DDR, from everyday life in the Socialist state to the impact of living with the Stasi and the Berlin Wall. Here in the DDR Museum, there are lots of interactive displays – you can touch pretty much everything e.g. the toys that the East German children used to play with back then, and even drive a classic East German car – Trabant virtually! There is even a mock up of a typical East Berlin apartment and Stasi (East Germany secret police) interrogation room and prison. As you go through the exhibits, you will notice that the East Germans are subject to propaganda messages about how good the East is and how bad the West is and indoctrination starts very early – even with children.
Entrance fee to the DDR Museum is 8.50 Euros for adults and 5.50 Euros for children. The museum is not very big but it may take you some time to go through the museum if you like to see the level of details of the mock-up apartment and the large number of interesting East German artifacts.
Roman Market Gate of Miletus
And this concludes our museum-hopping experience across Berlin. Check out these links for our experiences with in-flight meals during the flight from Singapore to Berlin and back with Scoot and our other interesting dining experiences in Berlin as well as our day trip to Potsdam.
Scoot flies from Singapore to Berlin on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, departing Singapore at 12.25am and arriving at Berlin Tegel airport at 7.20am, and from Berlin to Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, departing Berlin at 9.40am and arriving at Singapore at 3.45am (one day later). The best part about landing at Berlin Tegel Airport is the airport’s proximity to the Berlin city centre. After clearing immigrations and collecting your baggage, you can be at your hotel in the city centre within 20 minutes
The Singapore to Berlin (and return) flight is on the spacious 787 Dreamliners which offer several amenities and services suited to long-haul travel e.g. inflight Wi-Fi, in-seat power and inflight ScooTV entertainment streamed to guests’ own devices (paid services). Promotional fares from Singapore to Berlin start as low as SGD 239 one way for Economy FLY option.
