Secrets of the Stadt

A UNESCO “city of design” and former home to Walter Gropius’s Bauhaus (the most influential of modernist art schools), Berlin has spent the past two decades clawing back its status as one of Europe’s most riveting—and raucous—creative hubs. Now home to innumerable young artists taking advantage of the post-communist city’s cheap rents and vacated spaces, as well established names such as Isa Genzken and Franz Ackermann, Berlin boasts over 600 galleries, a glut of world-renowned nightspots and a much-lauded electronic music scene that has produced pioneering artists such Basic Channel and, more recently, Bpitch Control label boss and fashion designer Ellen Allien. The city has monuments and buildings grand enough to rival any metropolis in Europe, but given its sprawling nature, finding the full range of the wonders can be difficult. Taschen’s Berlin, part of a new series of “insider’s guides” to European cities from the art publisher, eases and enhances this voyage of discovery. Today, we present photographic highlights of the book, which covers the best of Berlin's cafes, restaurants, hotels bars and clubs—from the shabby chic of 30s starlet Aste Nielson's former apartment (now the "Pension Funk" hotel) to the sleek, hyper-modern interiors of style emporium The Corner.