Hackescher Markt and Scheunenviertel Guide

The Scheunenviertel, or Barn Quarter, takes its name from the barns built outside the old city walls in the seventeenth century to store hay. By the early twentieth century it was a densely built, mostly poor district and the centre of Jewish life in Berlin, home to many families who had arrived from Eastern Europe. After 1933 the community was driven out and murdered, and then the quarter decayed in the DDR years. Since 1990 it has been restored, and it is now a tidy network of courtyards, small galleries and cafés. It is compact, close to Museum Island, and rewarding if you read the history as you walk.

1. Hackescher Markt station. The S-Bahn stops on a brick viaduct beside a busy square, with trams passing below.
2. Hackesche Höfe. A complex of eight connected courtyards from the early 1900s, with glazed Art Nouveau tiles in the first one. Explore the quieter inner courts, and expect cafés, a cinema and craft shops.
3. Rosenthaler Strasse 39. A neighbouring courtyard holds the Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt, which tells of a workshop where blind and deaf Jewish workers were sheltered, and the Anne Frank Centre. Check each site's own page for visiting details.
4. Sophienstrasse. A rare surviving street of eighteenth-century houses, ending at the Sophienkirche, a baroque church with a slender tower.
5. Auguststrasse. Galleries and a contemporary art institute. Gallery openings are the usual draw.
6. Grosse Hamburger Strasse. A quiet street with an old Jewish cemetery, now a green space with a memorial, and a reminder of what was lost.
7. Oranienburger Strasse. The New Synagogue, with its golden dome, opened in 1866 and was one of the largest in Europe. Today it is the Centrum Judaicum, a museum and community centre. Keep the dress and tone respectful, and check the official site for entry and security rules.
8. Monbijoupark. A small riverside park on the Spree opposite the museums.

When to come and what to skip

Mid-morning on a weekday is calmest, before the courtyards fill with shoppers. We would not chase shopping here, as the boutiques are the sort you find in any capital. Pair it with the Berlin Cathedral and the Jewish Museum for a fuller picture, or stay for the evening bars around Rosenthaler Platz.