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Little Known Museums in and Around Berlin

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A major innovation in the area of travel books occurred in 1957 when Arthur Frommer introduced his "Europe On Five Dollars A Day." It was more than a practical guide to tourist sites and reasonable accommodations. The book served as an encouraging companion which showed the traveler how to be bold and adventurous without getting lost or going broke.

Over forty years later, author Rachel Kaplan offers the traveler a more intellectual and rewarding kind of travel experience through her book "Little-Known Museums in and Around Berlin" (she has written similar guides to Paris, London and Rome). Here Kaplan leads the traveler to 30 museums in Berlin and the surrounding countryside. Yet, it is Kaplan's grasp of the artistry to be found, her passion for the history evoked, and her love of the panoramic landscapes that captures one's imagination. The traveler is not only led on an adventure, but is shown intellectually and spiritually how to get to the most from it.

Kaplan's enthusiasm reaches such a peak that Germany's extraordinary artistic heritage in architecture, sculpture, painting and industrial design comes alive throughout the book. Highlights are: her descriptions of The Bauhaus Archive-Berlin Museum which pays tribute to a school of art and design that revolutionized twentieth-century design; The Film Museum-Potsdam containing Marlene Dietrich's dressing room for The Blue Angel; the New Synagogue Museum which was once partially destroyed by the Nazis but is now restored as a center for the fostering and preservation of Jewish culture. About this structure, Kaplan writes of a police officer who halted the Nazis at gun point in their quest to destroy it on Kristallnacht (November 9-10, 1938). This museum is now one of the city's most striking sights.

With each passage, Kaplan may well remind the reader of a special friend whose insights evoke new horizons and stir the emotions, in this case, for the cultural and political past and present of Berlin. The book's gorgeous illustrations include self-portraits of Kathe Kollowitz from the museum that bears her name; the sculpture "Solitude" from the Georg Kolbe Museum; and the statue of Martin Luther from Luther's Hall Wittenberg.

Perhaps the most significant accomplishment of the book is in how it rediscovers Berlin, a city so often associated only with the Third Reich and World War II. Kaplan's rich portrait is powered by the contrast between the ugliness of Hitler's reign and the beauty born through Germany's legendary artists and achievers who existed both before and after.

Having lived in London and traveled in Paris, I already owned Ms. Kaplan's entertaining and accesible guides to those two cities. Although no trip to Berlin is on the horizon, I bought her latest book, too, to indulge my wanderlust from an armchair. Beautifuly written and impeccably researched these guides take you on a trip through history, culture and politics to share the story behind how these unusual museums came to be. I can't wait to visit the Pickle Museum.