I never knew this neighbourhood existed and went to visit a friend and was instantly transported out of Berlin into some sort of 50's utopia.
"The Hansaviertel is a prime example of modern architecture and urban planning in the fifties in Berlin.
36 individual buildings or ensembles still form the model of modern architecture and urban planning of the 1950s. The southern part of the war-damaged Hansaviertel, which lies between the S-Bahn line and Tiergarten, was chosen as the central demonstration area of the International Building Exhibition in order to present the "city of tomorrow" - in deliberate contrast to the East Berlin Stalinallee and the restored tenement barracks." - berlin.de
Also visit The Akademie der Künste, if not for the art then the architecture alone.
New type of museum. It's a private collection from contemporary art pieces such as by Anish Kapoor or Nobuyoshi Araki to Chinese imperial furnitures or ancient Asian sculptures. The collection is wonderful and the light design is perfect. There is no description or title of the artworks - it invites you to purely see/feel the artworks themselves without influencing by the names. Must to go.
Rixdorf is definitely my favourite area of Berlin, because it is a historic village within in Berlin. At the moment it is under heavy construction, and I found this strange, nearly taken-down building sitting in the middle of the quaint neighbourhood.
A very close friend of mine owns this bar. It looks tiny from the outside, but it has two rooms you have to pass until you get to last one which is a discofloor. I play music there from time to time and I am always surrounded by nice people und friends.
Flughafen Tempelhof was once the symbol of nazi-pride when Hitler notoriously comissioned construction of the smallest duty free shop in the world (and a beautiful example of fascist architecture). After the war, Tempelhof became one of the frontiers of the cold war with the U.S. battling the communists (who undoubtedly wanted to get rid of the small duty free shop altogether) via the Berlin Airlift. It turned out to be a huge succes, and enabled the allied forces to remain their presence in Berlin and save the small duty free shop. The real free-market victory will come in about two years though, when project developers will take over and start building houses, blocking my view onto the airfield.