Neal,
I'm an Englishman living in Germany and have spent a couple of long weekends in Berlin and love the city. I also have friends in Wuppertal and was down there a couple of weeks ago. Not too much to do (we spent most of it in their place) but the hanging train is definitely worth a go.
As for Berlin, in my preference order:
Boat trips. They run regular boat trips up and down the river/canal system which the story of Berlin in WW2 and the Cold War. Check the notice boards and they'll tell you when the trips are being run with an English speaking tour. Trips range from 60 mins to 2 hours and are a great introduction before you walk round the city.
Reichstag (Bundestag). The queues can be long but you can pre-book yourself in for lunch at the restaurant on the roof. You jump all of the queues and go straight to the restaurant, eat lunch then can look around all you want. The lunch itself is not too expensive - about what you'd expect for food in the city. Good for 2 hours (including lunch)
Berlin Wall Memorial. They have revamped a section of the Berlin Wall so it looks like it did during the bad old days, plus there's a high building next to it so you can look over and see into the area. Good for a couple of hours.
Topographie des Terrors. This is a relatively new exhibition which is based around the old SS HQ in Berlin (which was bombed to the ground, although you can see some of the old foundations). It outlines the atrocities committed by the Nazis during their reign and is a bilingual exhibition. Well worth a visit, and one of the longest unbroken stretches of the old Berlin Wall is right next to it. Good for a few hours.
Brandenberg Gate. Definitely something to see while you're walking around.
Check Point Charlie. There's a small museum dedicated to escapes over the years including some of the more innovative ones. If you don't want to pay for the museum, try looking on the billboards which run along the line of the old wall in that area - they contain most of the history and are bilingual.
Alexanderplatz. The centre of old East Germany. For great views across the city go up the TV tower (with a decent camera). Good for a couple of hours.
All of the above you can cover in a (long) day on foot. If you have more time and want to see something outside the city centre:
Sachsenhausen (Oranienberg). We found out about this by accident. Oranienberg was an old SS garrison town with the Berlin concentration camp in it. It's not a death camp but originally held all of the political prisoners from Berlin before being expanded towards the end of the war. It was in the old Soviet sector and the Russians used it for their political prisoners and put a large war memorial in it, so you get WW2 and cold war history together in one place. We intended to go for a couple of hours but spent a full day there - it's about 1 hours drive from the city centre. It's a part of Berlin that fewer tourists get to see.
Luftwaffe museum. About 45mins west of the city centre (but within the city limits) the Luftwaffe museum is on the airfield that serviced the Berlin airlift. Mixture of aircraft - a few WW2, a number of Cold War and quite a few eastern block aircraft that I hadn't seen elsewhere. Quite a few helicopters including Hind and Hip, which I've seen in action but never been close enough to almost touch. Good for a few hours.
Schloss Charlottenburg. The largest palace in Berlin. Great building and gardens but it was bombed in WW2 and most of the internal furnishings and paintings were destroyed / stolen so it was a disappointment. If time is tight, avoid the disappointment.
The best way to see Berlin is to walk around it - we walked everywhere and found some real gems, from small hidden-away public gardens to walking around a corner to find some serious bullet holes in buildings where the area was obviously hard fought over. The best places for this are along the old Berlin Wall demilitarised zone.
If you're travelling Wuppertal to Berlin I'm at about the halfway point around 30 mins off the motorways (about 2 miles from the old Bergen-Belsen concentration camp). If you need a rest stop, PM me for my phone number and address. I've also got my Berlin map with all the tourist locations marked on it, so if you've got an address I can mail that to you (or try and scan it?).
Enjoy your vacation!
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