In Berlin Landau beheld a city unlike any other. She felt exhilarated by the possibilities. So many different theaters ensured that a new piece was premiering on any given night. To Landau, the best option was the Schauspielhaus in the central Mitte district of Berlin (it became a concert hall in 1984 and is today the Konzerthaus Berlin). A close second was the classical-looking Deutsches Theater on Schumannstrasse, where Austrian-Jewish Max Reinhardt worked until the Nazi takeover (he became its director in 1904 and made a name for himself through the seamless mixing of stage design, music, choreography, and text). Reinhardt also presented smaller works at the Theater on Kurfürstendamm, or Ku'damm, the main shopping street in western Berlin. The Tribüne, a theater on Otto-Suhr-Allee, was more controversial, with a repertoire of political-expressionist works that involved an impressive roster of avant-garde artists: Erwin Piscator, Bertolt Brecht, Hanns Eisler, Kurt Weill, Ernst Toller, and Georg Kaiser. For lighter fare, Landau attended cabaret shows at the Kabaret der Komiker, or Kadeko, which opened in 1924 and, with ever-growing success, moved from Kantstrasse to a modern theater on Lehniner Platz, newly built by the architect Erich Mendelsohn. Later, in 1929, the more politically oriented cabaret theater Die Katacombe opened in the basement of the Association of Berlin Artists on Bellevuestrasse (the Nazis shut it down in 1935).

For Landau, however, Berlin's musical groups and sites were the jewels of the city. There was the Philharmonic Orchestra, established as an independent, self-governing institution in 1882 and conducted then by Wilhelm Furtwängler. There was also the enduring Singakademie, a musical society founded in 1791. Landau especially enjoyed New Year's Eve performances at the Volksbühne, designed by Oskar Kaufmann as a democratic theater of the people. The regular feature, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with its powerful message of joy and brotherhood, fit both the holiday and the stage. The symphony's final chorus was timed to coincide with the stroke of midnight and, outside in the “biting cold,” Landau would hear Berlin's church bells pick up where Beethoven left off, “ringing in the New Year.” For opera Landau had three choices. Berlin-native Bruno Walter directed productions from 1925 to 1929 at the Städtische Oper (Municipal Opera, today the Deutsche Oper) in the western district of Charlottenburg.