High above Berlin on the Panorama Point at Potsdamer Platz

Viewpoints are simply the highlight of every city discovery for me. So a visit to the Panorama Point at Potsdamer Platz was just the thing for me.

Kollhoff-Tower

I’m standing on Potsdamer Platz and looking up at the Kollhoff Tower. The façade is so different from that of the neighbouring buildings and that makes the building extraordinary. The entire building is clinkered with dark peat-fired bricks and tapers upwards like a staircase.

After four years of construction, the Kollhoff Tower with its 25 floors was completed in 1999 on the newly designed Potsdamer Platz. It is 101 metres high and forms a high-rise ensemble with the adjacent DB Tower and the Forum Tower.

Panorama Point at Potsdamer Platz

Through a revolving door you enter the entrance area of the Kollhoff Tower. Here you get the tickets for the viewing platform.

Then it’s off to the lift. It is quite something to ride in the fastest passenger lift in Europe. Up to the 24th floor, i.e. at a height of about 100 metres, the lift travels at a speed of about 8.65 metres/second. This means that at over 30km/h you reach your destination in just under 20 seconds. Honestly, I did feel some pressure on my ears and a slightly queasy feeling in my stomach when the lift slowed down.

Through a door, you enter the open viewing platform, which leads almost completely around the building. You look past massive grids and the view is simply indescribable.

Discovering Berlin from above, I can hardly imagine anything more beautiful. My gaze first goes over Potsdamer Platz. I can see the fancy roof of the Sony Center from above, discover the Brandenburg Gate, Leipziger Platz, the Berlin Cathedral, the TV Tower…

A city tour from above and for me, as I have been travelling a lot in the city lately, it is exciting to see the places I have just visited from above. As I continue to walk around the platform, I discover the Tempodrom and in the far distance the Tempelhofer Feld.

Before I decide to go up one more floor, I first start reading the numerous display boards. The permanent exhibition “BERLINER BLICKE auf den Potsdamer Platz” presents the history of Potsdamer Platz in great detail. Numerous pictures illustrate the texts and I learn a lot that I didn’t know before.

Then I climb the stairs to the 25th floor. Even though I am only a few metres higher, the city below me seems completely different again.

The tour on this floor really offers a 360-degree view of the city. Now I can spot the Radio Tower, the ICC and the RBB building on Theodor-Heuss-Platz.

I don’t know how many pictures I have taken up here, but in any case, the Panorama Point at Potsdamer Platz is the ideal vantage point for me in Berlin. There are no glass panes with unnecessary reflections to get in the way of taking pictures, you are in the fresh air and have an indescribable view. What might the sunset over the city look like from the panorama point? I must go there again in autumn when the days get shorter and experience the sunset then.

If you can’t get enough of the view, you should visit the Panorama Café. The café, furnished in the style of the 1930s, offers coffee and tea as well as cakes and small snacks. Behind the large panorama windows, you can then let your gaze wander over the city for a while and enjoy.

Address:

Potsdamer Platz 1
10785 Berlin

Opening hours:

Platform
Summer: 11 – 19 h
Winter: 11 am – 6 pm
Last admission 30 minutes before closing time.
Café
Summer: 11am – 7pm
Winter: 11-17 h
Table reservations not possible.

More Informations: Webseite.

Admission fees:

Adults: 9,- €
Adults (VIP ticket without waiting at the lift): 13,50 €.
Discounts are available.

Disclosure: The visit to the Panorama Point at Potsdamer Platz was made possible for me free of charge. This report was written independently.