Kurfürstendamm

The Kurfürstendamm, Ku'damm for short, is the main boulevard of what West Berliners simply call City West. Through the decades of division this was the commercial heart of the western half of the city, the shopping street that West Berlin built to prove a point, and it kept the role after 1989 as a calmer, more established counterweight to Mitte.

It runs about 2.2 miles (3.5 kilometers) and changes character along the way: international chains and department stores at the eastern end, designer boutiques, galleries and quieter cafés as you head west. The side streets, Fasanenstraße in particular, hold most of the small shops worth stopping for.

At the eastern end stands the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, whose bombed-out tower was deliberately left standing as a ruin after World War II and is still known locally as the hollow tooth. The KaDeWe department store is a couple of blocks further on, along Tauentzienstraße, which is the continuation of the same shopping axis.

Several U-Bahn stations serve the boulevard, and Zoologischer Garten handles S-Bahn and regional trains as well. Hotels at every price level sit on or just off the street, which makes City West a practical base if you want a residential neighborhood at night and a direct 15-minute ride into Mitte during the day.