Andreas Murkudis is a chic boutique for the fashion forward in Berlin. It features trendy clothing for men and women as well as an array of home decor, accessories, jewelry and unique gift items. The collection boasts top international brands like Jil Sander, Guidi and Giorgio Brato. A purchase guarantees a stylish addition to your wardrobe.
If reading magazines to you means catching up on Paris Hilton’s latest social misstep, then this might not be your kind of store. At do you read me?! you’ll find a carefully culled selection of some of the best magazines in the world for art, fashion, design and the likes. However, if you’re somewhat behind the cutting edge of cultural theory, as most are, there are still numerous photography and art magazines with loads of lovely pictures waiting for you on the shelves. The prices here are a bit steeper than at your average newsstand, but that’s just the going rate for the crème de la crème.
In 1999 Heinrich Fassbender and Wilhelm Rausch established Fassbender & Rausch Chocolatiers, one of the biggest chocolate houses in the world, offering premium chocolate creations in every conceivable form. The delightful facility also displays scale models of famous landmarks and crafts cherubs, models, houses and other sculptures, made using chocolate of course.
Kurfürstendamm dates back to the 16th Century when Electoral Prince Joachim II constructed a path connecting his palace on Unter den Linden with his hunting lodge in Grunewald forest. In the late 19th Century, Bismarck transformed the simple street into a prestigious boulevard lined by stunning town houses. Destroyed during World War II and rebuilt in the ensuing decades, 'Ku'damm,' as Berliners affectionately call it, is still a symbol of wealth and prosperity.
This branch of the famous Parisian department store adds a touch of Mediterranean elegance to the German capital. Situated on Friedrichstraße, eastern Berlin's premier shopping street, the store offers the latest fashions from designers like Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Cardin. The design of the building, with its sunlit interior and glass roof, is stunning, another reason for a visit. The food hall in the basement is in the same league as KaDeWe's legendary food department and is a great place to come and sample a couple of fresh oysters.
Friedrichstraße is Berlin's answer to the Champs Elysées, Oxford Street and Fifth Avenue, a vibrant melting pot where history, culture, entertainment and fashion meet. Before the fall of the Wall, the southern section of Friedrichstraße was located in the West, and the northern part in the East. Beginning at Mehringplatz in Kreuzberg, the three kilometer-long (1.86 miles) street leads through the heart of the city centre, past the former border crossing at Checkpoint Charlie, to Oranienburger Tor, Berlin's pulsating nightlife district. Historically, the area around Stadtmitte underground station used to be Berlin's premier shopping district. The crossroads at Leipziger Straße were lined with swanky boutiques before wartime bombs left their mark. The new shopping district is now centered around Französische Straße underground station, and includes the fabulous Galeries Lafayette, the exclusive Quartier 206 and the awe-inspiring Friedrichstadtpassagen shopping mall - three of Berlin's architectural highlights. The northern section of the street leads into theater town. A magnet for theater-goers since the 19th century, visitors still pour into places like the Friedrichstadtpalast, Berliner Ensemble, Deutsches Theater and Kammerspiele.
Founded during the early days of the gay rights movement, Germany's first gay bookshop has developed into a comprehensive bookstore for sexual minorities in general. Customers will find novels, poetry, travel literature and much more amongst the shop's 12,000 different books. The staff is knowledgeable and charming and will help you find the book you're looking for. One of the most prestigious gay bookstores in the world, Prinz Eisenherz Buchladen moved to its current location on Motzstraße in November 2013.
It's the most natural thing in the world to buy a book about Berlin in Berlin. This antiquarian bookshop stocks everything about the city, its roots and its history. And it is indeed a fascinating history, full of unpredictable events and changes from the time of its foundation and the era of the Prussian soldier kings to the horrors of two World Wars, the partition of the city and the final reunification.
Maybe you'll overhear a couple of regular customers discussing their latest exploits on stage, new tricks or great gags. Or maybe you'll observe keen amateurs examining the colorful balls, clubs, swords and plates used by jugglers or old men with their heads deep in a textbook. A paradise for professionals and amateurs alike, the juggling selection at Die Jonglerie is rounded off by masks and make-up for performances. The shop also stocks a broad variety of children's toys from teddy bears and toy cars to water pistols and kites.
While Andreas Cymbarewicz's main branch on Dieffenbachstraße caters largely to professional artists, this branch on Landwehrkanal has everything a hobby painter needs. Be it brushes or pencils, paint or chalk, paper or sketchbooks, it's all here. The shop also stocks a selection of other useful items such as textbooks, folders and holdalls.
Some travel guide must have covered this little shop in Bergmannstraße, as it has become particularly popular with foreign visitors in recent years. Fortunately, it hasn't lost any of its charm, and still sells the same great selecion of second-hand American fashions. The big things at the moment are the stripy T-shirts, V-neck sports shirts, US Army trousers and blue boiler suits. Yet this shop stocks pretty much everything that fashionably old-fashioned Berliners love to wear: corduroy bell-bottoms, suede jackets with fur collars, baseball jackets, hooded sweat shirts and the like. A special section is dedicated to more glamorous outfits.
Anchored in Collectio Navalis's glass showcases are hundreds of miniature ships. They were built mostly to a scale of 1:1250 and this includes the beefy American aircraft carriers and menacing Japanese gunboats as well as cute little tug-boats and luxury ocean liners. This astonishing collection is the only one of its kind in Berlin and is popular with both German and foreign collectors. You will need a certain amount of knowledge to fully appreciate the miniature ships, so the shop also stocks plenty of books covering all aspects of seafaring.