Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag Self-Guided Audio Walk: Tiergarten Memorials and Spree
1 hour and 30 minutes
About this experience
The Brandenburg Gate, the Tiergarten and the Reichstag were each built for one purpose and then claimed by every regime that held Berlin. A tax gate became a peace gate, a stage for marches and a frontier. A royal hunting wood became a public park and now holds the city's memorials. A parliament was burned, wrecked, wrapped and crowned again in glass. Start on Pariser Platz and walk through the Gate, then into the park past the memorials to persecuted homosexuals and to the Sinti and Roma, a gilded monument to three composers, a ring of bronze animals with a Philadelphia twin, and the Soviet War Memorial. Read the Reichstag's bronze motto from the lawn, see the glass dome up close, and end at the White Crosses on the Spree, where the river was the border. Ten stops, about 2.9 km and 90 minutes, at your own pace, in English. Mostly level, with a flight of steps near the end. Reichstag dome visits need free advance registration, not included.
- Experience type
- Day tour or activity
- Duration
- 1 hour and 30 minutes
- Audio guide
- English
- Guide
- English
- Categories
- Walking tour · Cultural and theme tours · City tours
What's included
Self-guided audio tour in English: 10 stops, 2.9 km, 1.5 hours Stops at Brandenburg Gate, memorial to persecuted homosexuals, a ring of bronze animals GPS map and walking directions in your phone browser, no app needed Lifetime access: start any day, at any hour, and replay it
What's not included
A live guide: you set the pace and the pauses A fixed start time: begin whenever you arrive Museum and monument tickets, all optional extras Tip or gratuity Food and drinks Entry or admission fee
Please note
To start the tour, enter the ticket code from your confirmation on the Roamer redemption page linked there. Do this before you set off, while you still have signal. The tour then opens in your phone browser, with no app to download. Bring a charged phone and earphones. Mobile data helps; if you have none, open the tour on wifi before you set off. Best time: Morning, before about 10am, for a quieter Pariser Platz and Gate; or late afternoon into dusk, when the Reichstag dome is open until its last admission at 9:45 p.m. (book ahead; closed 19 to 30 October 2026). The park paths are pleasant in daylight at any season; the Tiergarten is in leaf from May to October, which shades the memorials but does not hide the Gate or the Reichstag from the lawn. Events, state visits and demonstrations close Pariser Platz at short notice. Getting to the start: S+U Brandenburger Tor (S-Bahn S1, S2, S25 and S26, U-Bahn U5) is about 60 meters from Pariser Platz; bus 100 also stops there. Checked 9 October 2026. The walk ends on the Spree bank about 300 meters east of U5 Bundestag and about 350 meters north of S+U Brandenburger Tor. Checked 9 October 2026. Reichstag dome: free, by advance registration on the Bundestag website; spare places can be booked the same day at the service center by the Reichstag, at least two hours ahead (8am to 8pm, weekends 10am to 6pm, until 31 October). Bring photo ID (original) if you are 16 or over. Last admission 9:45 p.m.. Checked 9 October 2026. Step-free route to the White Crosses (stop 10): instead of the flight of 20 steps down to the river path, stay on the upper level and go round by the Reichstagufer; it adds about 150 meters. The window in the memorial to persecuted homosexuals (stop 3) can reflect bright sky: shade the glass with your hand to see the film. The Reichstag dome is closed for cleaning and maintenance from 19 to 30 October 2026; the roof terrace stays open. It is also closed on 24 December and from 4pm on 31 December. Checked 9 October 2026 on bundestag.de. Pariser Platz and the Gate are crowded and pickpockets work there. The Berlin police advise walking on firmly past anyone who asks for a signature and a donation: do not sign and do not pay. If someone claims to be a police officer, ask for ID. Cyclists share every park path on this walk and use a cycle strip right by the Gate's west side: look both ways before crossing. The road crossings at the Gate, at the end of Yitzhak-Rabin-Strasse and at Scheidemannstrasse are busy; cross only at the lights. The memorial to the Sinti and Roma (stop 7) asks visitors to speak quietly, not to enter the pool or throw coins, and to bring no flags or banners. Keep your audio low there. Around 8 and 9 May each year the police set special rules on flags, uniforms and symbols at the Soviet War Memorial (stop 6). The lawn in front of the Reichstag has been worn and partly fenced for building works since 2024; in October 2026 maps showed the paths across its east side closed. The route stays on the open paths at its edges. Checked 9 October 2026. The last stretch to stop 10 is a flight of 20 steps; see the tips for the step-free way round. Some park paths are fine gravel, rough for wheelchairs and strollers, and there are two short flights of five steps between stops 4 and 5. Public transportation nearby
Itinerary
- 1Day 0
Pariser Platz: A Square Named for Paris
Pariser Platz, east side of the square facing the Brandenburg Gate, 10117 Berlin, Berlin
A square older than its famous gate. Laid out in 1734 and named for Paris in 1814, it was rebuilt from 1993 under a rule that every new front should join historic forms to modern ones.
- 2Day 0
Brandenburg Gate: Peace Gate, Frontier, Stage
Platz des 18. März, west side of the Brandenburg Gate, 10117 Berlin, Berlin
The only city gate Berlin has kept. Opened in 1791 as the Peace Gate, it lost its goddess to Paris, carried the Wall's frontier from 1961 and opened again on 22 December 1989.
- 3Day 0
Memorial to Persecuted Homosexuals: One Window
Ebertstraße, Tiergarten path by the Memorial to the Homosexuals Persecuted under Nazism, 10117 Berlin, Berlin
A concrete block with one small window. Opened in 2008, it borrows the form of the Holocaust memorial across the road and adds a window showing a film of a same-sex love scene.
- 4Day 0
Beethoven-Haydn-Mozart Monument: The Musicians' Stove
Tiergarten, path south of the Beethoven-Haydn-Mozart Monument, near Ebertstraße, 10785 Berlin, Berlin
A gilded monument to three composers. Unveiled in 1904 by the sculptor Rudolf Siemering, it was nicknamed the Musicians' Stove and stands over a road tunnel.
- 5Day 0
Floraplatz: Bronze Animals from Philadelphia
Floraplatz, Tiergarten, by the bronze animal sculptures, 10785 Berlin, Berlin
A Baroque clearing ringed by bronze animals. Eight animals cast after Siemering's models for a Washington monument in Philadelphia surround a bronze Amazon on horseback.
- 6Day 0
Soviet War Memorial: Across the Nazi Axis
Straße des 17. Juni, north pavement outside the Soviet War Memorial, 10557 Berlin, Berlin
Berlin's first great Soviet memorial after the war. Inaugurated on 11 November 1945 over the graves of about 2,500 Soviet soldiers, it stood behind British guard in West Berlin until 1990.
- 7Day 0
Memorial to the Sinti and Roma: A Pool That Mirrors
Simsonweg, Tiergarten, by the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Murdered under Nazism, 10557 Berlin, Berlin
A dark round pool in a clearing. Dani Karavan's memorial to the Sinti and Roma murdered under National Socialism opened in 2012 and is open day and night.
- 8Day 0
Reichstag: Letters from French Cannon
Platz der Republik, west edge of the lawn facing the Reichstag, 10557 Berlin, Berlin
The parliament's west front across the lawn. Its motto Dem Deutschen Volke went up in 1916 in bronze from French cannon; on this side of the square the Enabling Act was passed in 1933.
- 9Day 0
Reichstag and Band des Bundes: Crowned in Glass
Platz der Republik, north edge of the lawn by Paul-Löbe-Allee, 10557 Berlin, Berlin
The Reichstag's glass dome seen up close. Norman Foster's dome of 1999 is the building's latest top, and the government's buildings run in a line across the old border.
- 10Day 0
White Crosses: The River Was the Border
Reichstagufer, Spree bank at the White Crosses memorial, 10117 Berlin, Berlin
Seven white crosses on the Spree bank. They remember people who died at the Berlin Wall, where its front wall met the river behind the Reichstag.
Meeting point
Pariser Platz, Berlin Pariser Platz, east side of the square facing the Brandenburg Gate, 10117 Berlin, Berlin, Berlin, DE
Pick up
Pickup is not provided.
Cancellation policy · Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag Self-Guided Audio Walk: Tiergarten Memorials and Spree
Standard Viator policy
- Cancellation 0–24 hours before departure: 100% cancellation fee.
- Cancellation 24–24000 hours before departure: 0% cancellation fee.
Good to know
Operated by Roamer and sold by AGORA. Your voucher and booking reference arrive by email straight after payment.