The area around Frankfurter Allee S-Bahn station offers a particularly interesting cityscape, from prefabricated buildings and Stasi history to historic Wilhelminian-style neighbourhoods. The cityscape has changed and modernised considerably in recent decades, particularly at Rummelsburger Bucht. From the centrally-located NH Berlin City Ost, you can easily explore the neighbourhoods and highlights of the surrounding area.
Stylish comfort in the east of the city centre
The modern NH Berlin City Ost is an ideal starting point for exploring typical Berlin neighbourhoods and many special sights in the eastern part of the city centre. It is located in the district of Lichtenberg, which is characterised by numerous cultural attractions, right on the border with the lively Friedrichshain district. Both districts can be easily explored on foot or by bicycle from here. In the stylish and brightly-furnished hotel rooms, you can expect comfortable facilities, from flat-screen satellite TV and free WLAN to digital security lockers and a minibar. Most of the rooms are also air-conditioned.
Another highlight of the hotel is the greenery-filled terrace, where coffee and refreshing drinks are served. Right next to the hotel is the Italian restaurant ‘Rossini Quattro’, which serves a breakfast buffet for hotel guests in the morning. To get to all the sights quickly from the NH Berlin City Ost hotel, you can use the bike hire service at the nearby nextbike station at Frankfurter Allee S+U station. There, bikes can be hired easily via the nextbike app.
Exploring Friedrichshain and Lichtenberg neighbourhoods
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Kajak auf dem Rummelsburger See in Lichtenberg
You can immerse yourself in Berlin's history right in the neighbourhood of the NH Hotel City Ost: The Stasi Museum is only about 500 metres away. Located on the site of the former GDR MfS headquarters, the museum is also a research and memorial centre. Theater an der Parkaue, a children’s theatre and youth theatre, is also just a short walk away in a building inspired by the Renaissance. Behind it is the Stadtpark Lichtenberg. A little further to the west, on the inner side of the S-Bahn ring, is the Samariterkiez neighbourhood.
If you cross Frankfurter Allee from the hotel in a southerly direction, you will soon reach a special neighbourhood right on the border between Lichtenberg and Friedrichshain. Built at the end of the 19th century in the Wilhelminian style, the Kaskelkiez neighbourhood with its striking oval shape is particularly well preserved, and is still reminiscent of the cityscape of over 100 years ago. Incidentally, the famous ‘Milljöh’ illustrator Heinrich Zille also lived here in the neighbourhood, historically known as Victoriastadt, around 1900. You can find out more about the neighbourhood and the district at the Museum Lichtenberg in the Stadthaus on Türrschmidtstraße. On the site of the former Berlin-Lichtenberg-Ost train yard, numerous contemporary artists work at B.L.O.-Ateliers. The listed Schrotkugelturm on Nöldnerstraße is also worth seeing in the neighbourhood.
Pass through the Rummelsburg S-Bahn station and continue southwards, where you will find the picturesque Rummelsburger Bucht. This became famous throughout the GDR as the setting for the film "Paul und Paula" and is now lined with modern residential buildings. The best way to explore the waterfront is on a walk along the Zillepromenade. If you continue along Rummelsburger See to the mouth of the Spree, there are more highlights to discover. These include the Dark Matter art museum, a multidimensional world of light, space and sound, and the Klingenberg combined heat and power plant. Now fully equipped with modern technology, it produces heat and electricity for around 300,000 people - albeit behind the now-listed facades from the 1920s.
Diverse culinary offerings in the surrounding area
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the work of the former East German Secret Service, and find out how their activities affected the lives of ordinary people.
Step into this exciting world of sound and light: At Dark Matter, the installations of Berlin light artist Chris Bauder have found a permanent home in Lichtenberg.
The Haubroks have been putting on art shows for the public in Berlin since 2005.
A work by Raoul de Keyser, acquired in 1988, marked the beginning of Barbara and Axel Haubrok's collection. In the following years, the art lovers concentrated on collecting paintings. Their interest shifted to conceptual art with works by Günter Förg, including photographs and sculptures, a shift that along with Minimal Art makes up the core of their collection, now consisting of more than 750 works.
SchokoLadenEis-Manufaktur offers even more than the name reveals. For a start, it’s open all year round. Ice cream is available throughout the summer until the chocolate party in the backyard marks the start of the chocolate season in October. In the cold winter months there is something for everyone, with an abundance of 23 different chocolates and truffles to try. Sourdough bread is also baked and on sale twice a week. If you need a little extra for your ice cream enjoyment, sprinkles, cream or gummy bears on top can provide it. Vegans don't miss out either, because all fruit varieties are lactose-free and vegan.
In the eastern Samariterkiez neighbourhood, not far from Frankfurter Allee S-Bahn station, KleinMein Coffee & Food offers a cosy and informal co-working space with a fast WLAN.
Salon Babette is a former beauty salon from the GDR times turned trendy bar and event space. The drinks menu is focused on quality and offers a large selection of regional products.
In her Berlin design studio, Katja Werner, owner and founder of K.W.D., produces unique pieces and small accessories series out of recycling materials. Disused bicycle and motorcycle tubes as well as vintage air mattresses provide the basic elements for sturdy, durable products. Using the materials' unique qualities and respecting their original form, the designer creates new meanings and contexts and brings them back to life as wallets, bags, mobile phone cases or belts.
The Wellenwerk in Lichtenberg, Berlin’s first indoor surfing centre, opened in 2019, when experienced and wannabe surfers will be able catch a wave in the capital city.
Alongside the nine-metre-wide, indoor citiwave® surf wave, there’s a lifestyle …
Close to Boxhagener Platz, the Silo invites you to enjoy an Australian-inspired breakfast, mostly served in cast-iron pans. The menu is seasonal and regional. You can enjoy your meal with a delicious coffee, which comes exclusively from the café's …
A centrally located snack stand that combines the popular Turkish dish with modern, vegan lifestyles. In addition to the daily changing soup menu, there are also two vegan burger variations at Vöner.
Fine, white sandy beach, palms and water – no, we’re not talking about the Caribbean but the Rummelsburg beach bar. Shady salas, comfortably sunbeds and bamboo bars laden invite you to chill out after your workday stress.
Behind the colourful houses in the Kaskelkiez neighbourhood, you can't miss the 40 metre high Schrotkugel Tower. It was built in 1908 and is supposed to be reminiscent of an Italian nobleman's tower. The building also had a practical side as it served for the pouring of lead bullets until the late 1930s. The lead plates were melted at the top of the tower. The lead droplets then fell freely and the laws of physics made them into perfectly rounded buckshot whose special accuracy was legendary among hunters.
Floating along on the water and discovering the beautiful green banks of the Spree and Rummelsburger See - The Ahoi Ostkreuz is an ideal starting point for this
Between Samariterkiez, Kaskelkiez and Rudolfkiez, there is also a particularly diverse culinary selection. Just a few hundred metres out of town on Frankfurter Allee you will find the small Asian-Mexican fusion restaurant Tacuza. On Möllendorfstraße, just around the corner from the hotel, the cosy and nostalgically-furnished Cooquin Café serves Vietnamese cuisine, from Bánh Mì baguettes to main courses. At the trendy KleinMein Coffee & Coworking in the Samariterkiez neighbourhood, thyme focaccia, cakes that change daily and coffee are once again on the menu. Another highlight is the vegan doner snack bar Vöner on Boxhagener Straße, not far from the Kaskelkiez neighbourhood. Last but not least, the stylish Hafenküche with its beautiful view of Rummelsburger Bucht is the crowning highlight of your trip to the waterfront.
