Berlin Zoo

Berlin Zoo (42)

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Berlin Zoo is the oldest in Germany and also one of the biggest. Without doubt, it is one of the city’s main attractions, above all after the birth of ´Knut` the polar bear, on the 5th of December 2006.

The zoo was founded in the middle of the 19th century and the first animals kept here were donated by the Prussian king Frederick William IV.

Years later, during the Second World War, an allied bomb fell on the zoo and killed its only elephant. By the end of the war almost all the animals had died: before its outbreak the zoo had 3,000 animals, when it finished there were only 90 left.

Fortunately, with the passing of time, the zoo has regained its initial splendour and is today home to 14,000 animals, with up to 1,500 different species. What really stand out are the Komodo Dragons and Giant Pandas, which are found in very few of the world’s zoos.

You can visit the zoo the whole year round, it never closes. We recommend you enter by Elephants’ Gate, known in German as ´Elefantentor`. This structure is enormous and exotic, and passing through it feels like you are entering a type of unreal Hindu world. The gate is found in BudapesterstraBe, although you can also get to the enclosure via Lion’s Gate, in Hardenbergplatz.

You may be interested to know that the song ´Zoo Station` from Irish group U2’s album “Achtung Baby” actually refers to Berlin Zoo’s station.

If after visiting the zoo you feel like seeing even more exotic animals, remember that there is another zoo in the city, the Tierpark Berlin, in the Lichtenberg district, which was formerly part of East Berlin.

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Friedrichshain District (55)

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Potsdamer Square (48)

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Tiergarten District (41)

Berlin Cathedral (21)

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Church of Saint Nicholas (Nikolaikirche) (29)

Friedrichswerdersche Church (31)

Humboldt University (10)

National Library (12)

Saint Hedwig's Cathedral (9)

Unter Den Linden Street (6)

Berlin Sculpture (37)

Ephraim Palace (30)

Funkturmz (40)

KaDeWe - Department Store (38)

National Opera House (Staatsoper) (13)

Soviet Monument (Sowjetisches Ehrenmal) (51)

Berlin Zoo (42)

Fountain of Neptune (Neptunbrunnen) (25)

German Church (Deutscher Dom) (7B)

Kurfürstendamm Avenue (39)

New National Library (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin) (50)

The Holocaust Monument (5)

Church of Saint Maria (Marienkirche) (24)

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House of World Cultures (45)

Marx-Engels Forum (27)

Pfaueninsel Palace (53)

The New Synagoge (32)

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