Berlin – the Birthplace of Modernity

The Spirit of Innovation and Architecture

This half-day experience explores the modern spirit of the Weimar Republic in its artistic and architectural expressions — later to become world-famous as the Bauhaus. While the Bauhaus was founded in Weimar and later moved to Dessau, it was the vibrant Berlin of the early 1920s that sparked the creative energy that defined modernism.

You will discover iconic works and hidden treasures of the movement, experiencing the vitality of an avant-garde whose ideas continue to resonate today.

Start at the Schaubühne

Meeting point is the cafeteria at the Schaubühne on Lehniner Platz, a 1920s building designed by Erich Mendelsohn. Here we introduce the fundamental principles of modernism: how form follows function. It also shows how function itself becomes a design element. From there, a walk leads to a former chocolate factory in the Erich-Hamann-Haus, preserving original interiors designed by Johannes Itten.

Along the Kurfürstendamm

A double-decker bus takes us along the Kurfürstendamm to selected modernist buildings that survived the war. Amid commercial buildings, transport structures, and residential projects, the spirit of innovation from those years comes vividly to life.

Mies van der Rohe and the Pinnacle of Modernism

The architectural highlight of the journey is the Neue Nationalgalerie — Mies van der Rohe’s final masterpiece and an icon of modern clarity.

Finale at the Wintergarten

The excursion concludes with a fine meal at the Wintergarten Varieté, once a central hub of Berlin’s jazz era and a stage where icons like Josephine Baker rose to fame..