By bus or bike, are the best ways to see Berlin's sites. You may buy a DB pass and sort the route out for yourself, or buy a "Yellow" bus ticket . . . and let a driver transport you along an appointed route between the monuments. Of course, one man's monument is another man's tourist trap. You could spend six months in Berlin (and the environs) and not see everything there is to see. If you have six months, no problem. But for the weekend visitor, these are my recommendations:
1. The Museum Insel and Berliner Dom - Like London and Paris, Germany has looted the world's ancient history of its most spectacular works of art. You can find a littany of museums, parks and churches on the narrow stip of land between the Spree river and its opposing canal. Of late, Berliners are disassembling the East German congress building (full of asbestus) and hope to build a replica of the original Berlin state palace (that inside will be a shopping mall). Quel damage! But the museum island is the epicenter of the new Berlin, and provides more than a single day of distraction.
2. The Brandenburg Tor and Unter Den Linden - The main street of Berlin has been rebuilt from ashes and ruin. It is beautiful, clean, and tree-lined. The boulevard from the western gate of the old city extends to the museum island, passing Humboldt University, Bebelplatz (where the books were burned), St. Hedwig's Catholic Cathedral, the NeuOpernHaus and the War Memorial. Walking the length of Unter Den Linden gives you a sense of the conflict between old and new Berlin. Both are omnipresent and engaged in a new synthesis.
3. Denkmal for the Murdered Jews of Europe - This memorial lies between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Tor. It is an undulating field of mausoleum-like cubes, covering an underground information center about the Jewish Holocaust. In my opinion, it is a more successful monument than the Jewish Museum of Daniel Leibeskind.
4. Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin Wall and Topography of Terror - A divided city, country and world becomes tangible at this border between east and west, then and now. Interestingly, the remaining wall in central Berlin is now protected by a wall (See picture), because too many western tourists were breaking off chunks as souvenirs. Now the Berliners are tasked with preserving something that was once the bane of their existence.5. The Reichstag - Take a parliament, build it up, have an anarchist burn it down, enable fascists to take over the country in its absence, and bake in several world wars for about 30 years. When done, set in a cold war for another 30 years until ready to decorate. Clean the parliament, modernize it, and top it off with an architectural icon (a transparent dome that reflects the environment through a spiral staircase). Serves several million a year, hopefully for a long time.
6. Charlottensburg Palace - Set in beautiful parklands in the heart of the city, this palace anchors Berlin in the history that preceded the 20th century.
7. The Berlin Zoo, Tiergarten, and Siegelsaule. What's not to like: Animals, food, ice cream, and Elsa the Golden Angel.
8. The Gendarmenmarkt - Berlin's most beautiful square is the Baroque incarnate. French flourishes surround museums, cafe's and concert halls. It's just a beautiful place to "be."
9. Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche - The most successful synthesis of the old and the new is the memorial church. The destroyed cathedral is bookended by a blue jewelbox lantern-like church and bell tower. The site can be experienced from outside and inside (the living house of worship). You must most especially visit inside the remaining ruin, featuring beautiful mosaics of German history. The buildings seem to change their character over the course of the day, and year. Photographed in the morning, at midday and night, the buildings metamorphize and reflect light in a broad range of moods.
10. The Fernsehturm (The Television Tower). During the advent of mass communication, in the 1950s and 1960s, West Berliners erected a tall radio tower (Funkturm) that was supposed to be a modern Eiffel Tower for 
Berlin (It had a viewing station and elevated restaurant, but is nowhere near as beautiful as the Tour Eiffel). For many years this was the highest view of Berlin. The East Germans would have none of it. The radio tower offended their national pride and heroic aesthetics, so they designed a superior tower (that to me looks like a papal wand or 1968 Christmas ornament) and had the Swedes install it over Alexanderplatz and the Karl Marx Alley (read as communist parade route). 28 years later in a unified Berlin, this symbol of communist pride is capitalistic tourism headquarters. A fitting tribute, no? My favorite thing to do is wander through the park below the tower photographing the numerous statues, fountains, churches and Town Halls, and then to ascend the tower in a tiny elevator to eat ice cream in the rotating restaurant. If you can manage to do this late in the day, you can watch the sun set. Then, Berlin lights up like a Christmas tree!
Berlin (It had a viewing station and elevated restaurant, but is nowhere near as beautiful as the Tour Eiffel). For many years this was the highest view of Berlin. The East Germans would have none of it. The radio tower offended their national pride and heroic aesthetics, so they designed a superior tower (that to me looks like a papal wand or 1968 Christmas ornament) and had the Swedes install it over Alexanderplatz and the Karl Marx Alley (read as communist parade route). 28 years later in a unified Berlin, this symbol of communist pride is capitalistic tourism headquarters. A fitting tribute, no? My favorite thing to do is wander through the park below the tower photographing the numerous statues, fountains, churches and Town Halls, and then to ascend the tower in a tiny elevator to eat ice cream in the rotating restaurant. If you can manage to do this late in the day, you can watch the sun set. Then, Berlin lights up like a Christmas tree!
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