SHOPPING: Ku'damm

U Kurfurstendamm

www.kurfuerstendamm.de/en/

Repeatedly referred to as Berlin's own Champs-Élysées, Ku'damm's tree-lined avenue of designer boutiques, upmarket restaurants and expensive hotels provides a taste of luxury in the city. During the nineteen-twenties the area of the "New West" was a vital part of leisure and nightlife, but the avenue has suffered between then and now. The shops and businesses owned by the Jewish community became victim of "Reichskristallnacht" in November 1938, and most of the boulevard was destroyed in air raids. Once rebuilt, Ku'damm became the central shopping street of the former West Berlin, and naturally a place of protest and demonstration. German Reunification caused the boulevard to compete with more central areas like Potsdamer Platz and Friedrichstraße, but it has since retained it's status as an upmarket and exclusive area to shop. 

Although the likes of Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Burberry might be out of most people's budgets, window shopping on a sunny day will feel luxurious enough, and grabbing a coffee to people watch with is definitely one of the more suave afternoons you'll spend in Berlin.