Names you’re likely to hear as you navigate your way through the reunited city include the following:

In the Western Zone

Charlottenburg Despite being renamed by Berlin wits as Klamottenburg (Ragsville) after the bombings of World War II, this is still the wealthiest and most densely commercialized district of western Berlin. Its centerpiece is Charlottenburg Palace.
One of the most interesting subdivisions of Charlottenburg is the neighborhood around Savignyplatz, a tree-lined square a short walk north of the western zone’s most visible boulevard, Kurfürstendamm.
Lining its edges and the streets nearby are a profusion of bars, shops, and restaurants, an engaging aura of permissiveness, and an awareness that this is the bastion of the city’s prosperous bourgeoisie.

Grunewald Many newcomers are surprised by the sheer sprawl of Grunewald’s 49sq. km (19 sq. miles) of verdant forest. The area serves as a green lung for the urbanites of Berlin. It lies west/southwest of the city center.

Hansaviertel This neighborhood, northwest of Tiergarten park, contains a series of residential buildings designed by different architects (including Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Alvar Aalto).

Kreuzberg Originally built during the 19th century to house the workers of a rapidly industrializing Prussia, this has traditionally been the poorest and most overcrowded of Berlin’s districts.
Today, at least 35 percent of its population is composed of guest workers from Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, and Greece.
Before the city’s reunification, the district evolved into the headquarters for the city’s artistic counterculture. Since reunification, however, the fast-changing neighborhoods within Mitte, especially Hackescher Höfe have offered stiff competition.

Spandau Set near the junction of the Spree and Havel rivers, about 10km (6 miles) northwest of the city center, Spandau boasts a history of medieval grandeur. Though it merged with Berlin in 1920, its Altstadt (old city) is still intact. The legendary Spandau prison was demolished in the early 1990s.

Tiergarten The name Tiergarten (which means “Animal Garden”) refers both to a massive urban park and, to the park’s north, a residential district of the same name. The park was originally intended as a backdrop to the grand avenues laid out by the German kaisers. The neighborhood contains the Brandenburg Gate, the German Reichstag (Parliament), the Berlin Zoo, and some of the city’s grandest museums.

In The Eastern Zone

Alexanderplatz The former East German regime threw up lots of rather ugly modern buildings and defined Alexanderplatz as the centerpiece of its government. Today the large and sterilelooking square is dominated by the tallest structure in Berlin, the Sputnik-inspired TV tower.

Mitte (Center) Closed to capitalist investment for nearly 50 years, this monumental district in the heart of Berlin is the one that’s on every speculator’s mind these days. It was originally conceived as the architectural centerpiece of the Prussian kaisers. Its fortunes declined dramatically as the Communist regime infused it with starkly angular monuments and architecturally banal buildings. Although some of Mitte’s grand structures were destroyed by wartime bombings, unification has exposed its remaining artistic and architectural treasures. The district’s most famous boulevard is Unter den Linden. Famous squares within the district include Pariser Platz (the monumental square adjacent to the Brandenburg Gate), Potsdamer Platz, and Alexanderplatz.

Potsdamer Platz Before World War II, this was the thriving heart of Berlin. Blasted into rubble by wartime bombings, it was bulldozed into a “no man’s land” when the Wall went up on its western edge in 1961. After reunification, it was transformed into the biggest building site in Europe, out of which emerged a glittering, hypermodern square dominated by such corporate giants as Daimler-Chrysler. It’s often cited as a symbol of the corporate culture of a reunited Germany.