traveldk.com

The technology museum is a giant playground for children, excellent for learning through play. There are locomotives to clamber over, windmills to play with and the exhibition “Spektrum”, where older children can conduct their own physics and chemistry experiments (see Kreuzberg & Schöneberg) .

Berlin’s only Museum for Children is particularly suitable for children at the preschool stage and in the early school years. Three or four themed exhibitions each year deal with subjects in a child-friendly and entertaining way – for example “Snoops and Detectives”. Every exhibition is interactive, allowing children to join in and experiment, becoming independent through their experiences in play.

This famous Berlin theatre for children and young people has been showing the hit musical Linie 1 for over ten years. The play, which is best suited to older children and adolescents, tells of the exciting life in the big city, using a U-Bahn line running from East to West Berlin as a metaphor.

A visit to the historical museum village of Düppel is like time travel back to the Middle Ages. Children can watch activities such as sowing, harvesting and feeding (see Grunewald & Dahlem) .

If you are visiting Berlin with children you should not miss out on the Zoo. Particular favourites are the Monkey House (with baby gorillas and chimpanzees) and the Baby Zoo, where children are allowed to touch and feed the young of various animal species (see Zoologischer Garten) .

Exciting shoot-outs, a walk-on film set with a U-boat, a town on an island and a small town in the Wild West are the most popular attractions at the film park – and not just with the children. A tour of the former UFA-Film studios lets visitors look behind the scenes: children try out make-up and costumes and admire the “sandman”, a TV figure popular with children in East Germany since 1959. Everywhere in the park you will encounter props and figures from well-known German films. “Special effects” are demonstrated on the visitors in an imaginative exhibition. The “World of Horror” chills more than just children’s spines.

Artificial stars, planets and nebulae take you to far-away galaxies under the silvery dome of the Planetarium (see Best of the Rest) .

After a long day, the ideal place for resting and reviving tired children’s feet and legs – and those of their parents – is a visit to the blub Swimming Paradise, one of Germany’s largest water parks with water slides, outdoor pool, saunas and children’s pool.

The small but excellent and inspirational Puppet Museum specializes in dolls and puppets. Children are allowed to perform their own puppet shows and have a go at being puppet theatre directors.

This old manor house, built in 1680, offers a rare insight into rural life in the Berlin area 100 years ago. Next door is a farm with animals, fields and a vegetable garden. This historical farm is very popular, not just with city children. A small market creates a genuinely rural atmosphere, and children can try out country activities such as sowing and harvesting for themselves, watch cows being milked and horses being shooed, and get close to beehives.