From the Tiergarten to Potsdamer Platz: a half-day walk through Berlin's government quarter

Berlin's government sits next to a forest. The Tiergarten, a big park of lawns, lakes and tall trees, runs right up to the chancellery and the parliament, and for most of this walk you move between the two: from trees to power and back to a city square that was empty for almost thirty years.

The route runs west to east in six stops and takes half a day. You start at a column on a traffic roundabout, cross the park, and then follow the line of the government buildings to the Reichstag. After that comes a field of grey concrete and a square that was rebuilt from nothing. Two stops are worth going into, one for the view and one for the history. The rest are best taken outdoors, at walking pace.

Begin at the Victory Column, which stands on the roundabout called the Großer Stern. It was finished in 1873 to mark Prussia's wars against Denmark, Austria and France, and the gilded barrels of captured guns set into its base come from those three enemies. It stood in front of the Reichstag at first. In 1938 and 1939 the Nazis moved it here and made it taller. On top, the gilded bronze Victoria that Berliners call Goldelse looks out over the treetops.

Leave the roundabout and walk east into the Großer Tiergarten. The Elector of Brandenburg made it a hunting ground in 1527, and Peter Joseph Lenné turned it into a landscape park in the 1830s, with winding paths, lakes and small bridges. It is about 210 hectares, which is why the government quarter feels so close to open country. The park was almost bare by 1945, because Berliners cut down the trees for firewood in the cold years of the war and after it. What you walk through was replanted from 1949 to 1959.

At the eastern edge of the park the trees give way to glass and concrete. The Federal Chancellery, the office and home base of the German chancellor, was designed by Axel Schultes and Charlotte Frank and opened in 2001. Berliners gave it a nickname, the washing machine, and the building is a modern, glass-fronted counterpart to the old parliament across the river.

Walk on to the Reichstag Building, which has been rebuilt more than once. Paul Wallot designed it, and it was finished in 1894. The words over the entrance, "Dem deutschen Volke", were added in 1916. After the fire of February 1933 parliament moved out, and Norman Foster's rebuild, completed in 1999, made it the working home of the Bundestag. Look closely at the inside walls: the bullet holes and the Russian graffiti of 1945 were kept on purpose.

Head south from the Reichstag toward the Brandenburg Gate. Just beyond it you reach the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a field of 2,711 grey concrete slabs designed by Peter Eisenman and opened in 2005. The slabs vary in height, and there is no single route through them.

Finish at Potsdamer Platz, a few minutes further south. Before the war it was one of the busiest junctions in Europe. In 1924 it got the first traffic light tower in Germany, and a copy of it stands near the square today. After 1961 the Wall cut across it, and the square became a wasteland where almost nothing stood. The Weinhaus Huth, an old building whose frame survived the war, stood alone in that emptiness. After 1990 the whole area was rebuilt with offices and a theatre.

Taken together, the stops are one story of a capital that kept losing its centre and rebuilding it. The park lost its trees and got them back. The parliament burned and was rebuilt as glass. Potsdamer Platz was built on land that had been empty for decades. Walk this route in good weather, when the park is at its best, and leave time for the Reichstag view.