Secret Berlin

An amphitheatre where animals were dissected, a sand dune hidden in a town centre, the oldest forgotten remains of the Berlin Wall in Pankow, the outstanding interior of an Expressionist church, a building which is a copy of the Farnese Palace in Rome, the remains of a camp for those in transit between the West and East, a concrete construction weighing 12,000 tonnes built to measure the solidity of the ground, a shining performance in the chapel of a cemetery, an unknown masterpiece of brutalist architecture, the man-made hill where the aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal did his first test flights, a street that closes from 10pm to 6am to protect beavers … Far from the madding crowds and the usual clichés, Berlin remains full of hidden treasures that can only be seen by locals and travellers who bother to wander off the beaten track. An essential guide for those who thought they knew Berlin, or for those who wish to discover the city’s other side.