Quick search
CTRL+K
Quick search
CTRL+K
Berlin is Germany’s largest city with its 3.5 million inhabitants and at the same time one of Europe’s great historical metropolises. The city is the former residence of the Hohenzollern rulers and for centuries the center of the great German cultural nation, which has given the world countless famous artists, thinkers and scientists.
Berlin was in many ways also the center of the world through the 20th century. This is where the Cold War was hottest with the United States and the Soviet Union on each side of the Berlin Wall. The wall is gone today, but you can see parts of it around the city, and you can see a lot of other sights from both the cold war era as well as other periods of German history as the nazi time from 1933-1945.
There are many beautiful buildings from the dominant architectural styles through the last several centuries, and modern-day buildings are found in abundance from the time since the German reunification became a reality in 1990. There are also places where old and new is mixed, like on the famous Reichstag building.
Berlin is also one of the great places in the world to enjoy magnificent museums. There are many to choose from, and Pergamon, Bode and the other museums on Museum Island are the highlights. Add to that the cultural life, the many restaurants and the great shopping, and then you know what makes a trip to Berlin something special.
At the beginning of the 18th century, a physical customs wall was built around Berlin, and a city gate was built towards Brandenburg, which naturally got the name Brandenburger Tor.
The current Brandenburger Tor was built 1788-1791 as a replacement for the original one, and it was supposed to be a splendid main entrance to the city and the splendid avenue Unter den Linden.
The style is neoclassical, and the gate is 26 meters high and 60 meters wide. At the top stands a Roman chariot led by four horses. The Brandenburg Gate used to stand in East Berlin right in front of the Berlin Wall. At reunification, the place became the very symbol of the time and the actions, as it was here that people climbed the Berlin Wall and subsequently tore it down.
Museumsinsel is the name of the northern part of the island in the river Spree, where five of Germany’s fantastic and internationally famous museums are gathered. These are the Altes Museum, Alte Nationalgalerie, Neues Museum, Pergamon Museum and Bode Museum. Among countless highlights are the bust of Nefertiti, the Pergamon Altar and the Ishtartor of Babylon.
The area is the one north of the axis with the street Unter den Linden, and its museum history started with an exhibition building in 1797. It was originally a residential area, but the museums were established little by little when King Friedrich Wilhelm IV laid out the Museum Island for art and science in 1841.
The history of Berliner Dom dates back to Frederick II’s church from 1451. This year the Elector moved his residence from Brandenburg to Cölln in what is now central Berlin.
The next significant year in the church’s history is 1535-1545. Here, Elector Joachim II obtained the Pope’s acceptance to close the city’s Dominican monastery, which was located next to the castle and the church, which from 1545 became the burial place of the Hohenzolls.
In 1538, a new two-tower facade was built to the west on the then former monastery church, which had become a court church. In 1539, Joachim II carried out the reformation locally, and the church converted to Protestantism. In the 17th century, the church became Calvinist, as Elector Johann Sigismund confessed to the Calvinist direction of the Protestant church. This status ended for the church in 1695.
In 1717, the church’s double towers were demolished to make room for a new baroque facade, but in 1747 the church was completely demolished in favor of Johann Boumann’s new, elegant baroque church from the years 1747-1750. Boumann’s baroque was changed to the neoclassicism of the time 1820-1822.
Once again, however, the church was completely demolished. It happened in 1893. The current cathedral was built 1894-1905 with St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican as a model. The Prussian state paid for the construction at 11.5 million marks, and they got a mighty church that acted as the Protestant counterweight to St. Peter’s Church.
The dimensions of the church were and are impressive. The ground surface measures 114×76 meters, and the height reaches 116 meters into the Berlin air. During the Second World War, the Berliner Dom’s lantern at the top was hit by an incendiary bomb on 24 May 1944. The lantern burned out and subsequently fell into the church room. In the years 1949-1953, a temporary roof was established, and in 1967 the Evangelical Union Church decided to restore and thereby partially rebuild the church, which the GDR state did not oppose. In 1975, the great work started, which was completed with a rededication on June 6, 1993.
Despite the church’s name, it has never actually had the status of a cathedral, as it has not been the seat of a bishop. Thus Berliner Dom is today a Protestant parish church, and services are held here.
In the beautiful church you can see, among other things, grave monuments for prominent Hohenzollern people such as Electors Friedrich Wilhelm and Friedrich III and Berliner Dom’s distinguished organ, which was built by Wilhelm Sauer.
Gendarmenmarkt is one of Europe’s finest squares, and a visit here is a must for many tourists. The square was laid out in 1688 as part of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm’s district of Friedrichstadt, and it contains, in addition to a good atmosphere, an elegant ensemble of buildings.
In the center of the Gendarmenmarkt, the Konzerthaus Berlin stands as a beautiful classicist building. The house was opened in 1821 as the Royal Playhouse/Königsliches Schauspielhaus. As early as 1776, a play house opened on the site, but in 1817 the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel was given the task of the new current house, which was built with fine decoration inspired by antiquity. During the Second World War, the area was bombed and the beautiful house was closed until 1984, when it was able to open in the fine present reconstructed theater building. Ten years later, the stage was named Konzerthaus Berlin, reflecting the theater’s current operation.
On each side of the Konzerthaus stands a beautiful domed tower with a church behind it; to the south the German Church/Deutscher Dom and to the north the French Church/Französischer Dom. The names Dom come from the fact that they are domed towers, but these have no religious connection with the churches. They were built as an impressive urban space with the Piazza del Popolo in Rome as a possible model.
The Deutscher Dom was built 1701-1708 according to Martin Grünberg’s drawings under the name Neue Kirche. It functioned as a church for both the German-Reformed and the Lutheran congregation in the district of Frierichstadt. In the years 1780-1785, the impressive domed tower was built in front of the Neue Kirche; which happened at the same time as a similar tower at the neighboring church Französische Dom. In 1881-1882, Grünberg’s first church was largely demolished due to the condition of the building, and it was rebuilt in Baroque style.
Französisches Dom, in its original design, was also built from 1701 for Friedrichstadt’s many Huguenots who had come from France. Its name was Französische Friedrichstadtkirche, and as Neue Kirche the dome tower itself was erected in 1780-1785 in front of the church building.
In the middle between the Gendarmenmarkt’s three main buildings, you can see a statue of the German poet, Friedrich Schiller. It was put up from 1856 on the occasion of Schiller’s centenary birthday.
The Reichstag is the seat of the Bundestag, the German parliament. The building itself is one of the best-known structures in Berlin, and events here have entered the history books several times.
With the unification of Germany in 1871, the need arose for unifying political institutions such as a parliament and ministries. In 1872, a competition was announced to design a new parliament building. The square Königsplatz was designated as the site of the Reichstag; at that time the noble mansion of Polish-Prussian Athanasius Raczyński was located here.
However, the construction dragged on due to, among other things, a long purchase process of Raczyński’s mansion. The result was that a new competition could be issued in 1882, and the current Riechstag was built in the years 1884-1894.
The German Reichstag lasted from its opening to here, and after World War I, Weimar was proclaimed a republic from the balcony of the Reichstag. It happened on 9 November 1918 at Philipp Scheidemann.
On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag burned down for unknown reasons. The dome of the building was lost as one of the many destroyed parts, and during the Nazi era the Reichstag was never rebuilt. In the Battle of Berlin in the last days of World War II, the Reichstag was also a symbolic target for the Soviet Union, and after bombings the building was more destroyed than after 1933.
A unified Reichstag in Berlin was not possible after the Second World War, as the governments of West Germany and East Germany respectively moved to Bonn and East Berlin, which were the two Germany’s new capitals. In 1961-1964, the Reichstag was reconstructed, but during Berlin’s divided time it was only used for representative meetings and special events.
With the reunification of Germany and the reconstruction by the British architect Norman Foster in 1999, the building once again became the home of the German parliament, and now it is possible to visit the new dome, one of Berlin’s modern landmarks.
Unter den Linden is Berlin’s central boulevard, connecting the Brandenburg Gate and Pariser Platz with the location of the reigning Hohenzollern city castle; Berlin City Palace.
The street’s history goes back to the 16th century, when Elector Johann Georg laid it out as an access road to the hunting grounds in the current Tiergarten. In 1647, the road was widened and rows of linden trees were planted, which also gave Unter den Linden its current name.
The street has been the city’s pride of place for centuries, and it has also been the scene of various parades throughout the ages. Along Unter den Linden are a number of interesting buildings, and in the middle of the street, close to Bebelplatz, you can see an equestrian statue of King Friedrich II. The statue was designed by Christian Daniel Rauch and erected in 1851.
Already in the first half of the 1950s, a television tower was planned in East Berlin; Fernsehturm Müggelberge. It was to be 130 meters high and was begun in 1954. The following year, construction stopped, as completion would disrupt the approach to the planned expansion of the airport in Schönefeld. A new project was created, and in 1964 Walter Ulbricht approved the construction of a television tower in the center of Berlin.
The tower was built 1965-1969 as both Berlin’s and Germany’s tallest building. The tower became a symbol of East Berlin and thereby the power of the East German state. It remains one of Berlin’s landmarks, and the tower’s ball was, for example, decorated as a football during the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
The tower is 368 meters high. There is a viewing platform at a height of 203 meters and the café Telecafé is 207 meters up. The telecafé rotates a round of 30 minutes. The view from the top of the tower is of course fantastic, and you can see all over Berlin and the city’s surroundings.
Karl-Marx-Allee is one of Berlin’s most distinctive streets. It was called Große Frankfurter Straße until 1949, when it was renamed Stalinallee after the Soviet leader. In 1961 it got its current name.
The boulevard that you can experience now was laid out 1952-1960 as the city’s most monumental and splendid street. The style is Soviet neoclassicism, Stalin Gothic, and the impressive buildings along the street should also show the best of the new socialist state’s skills.
The original piece of construction lies between the high-rises on Strausberger Platz to the west and the towers of Frankfurter Tor to the east. The domes of the two towers are intended as copies of the domes on the square Gendarmenmarkt’s churches.
Between the streets Andreasstraße and Koppenstraße there are newer blocks of prefabricated construction. Originally, here on the north side was the first completed building on Stalinallee, the neoclassical hall, the Deutsche Sporthalle from 1951, which was demolished in 1971. On the south side stood a 4.8 meter high memorial to Stalin, it was demolished in 1961; at the same time as the street name change.
Between Alexanderplatz and Strausberger Platz you can see a beautiful example of a public GDR building, namely the cinema Kino International from 1961-1963. Opposite Kino International is Café Moskau, which opened as Restaurant Moskau in 1964. Russian food was previously served here. Closer to Frankfurter Tor you can see the cinema Kosmos. All in all, you should not miss a stroll here if you are interested in the Soviet and East German period of the 20th century.
The Gemäldegalerie is an art museum that houses the majority of the Berlin State Museums/ Staatliche Museen zu Berlin painting collection. The collection is among the world’s finest within European visual art from the 13th-18th centuries.
Here are countless works by world-famous artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein, Jan van Eyck, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt and Johannes Vermeer.
Unlike many other collections, the collection did not start with royal purchases, but rather through ongoing acquisitions made by the Prussian government from 1815.
The Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtsniskirche is Berlin’s clearest memorial to the bombings during World War II. The original church building was built from the birthday of Emperor Wilhelm I in 1891 and inaugurated in 1895 in honor of Emperor Wilhelm I, who was the grandfather of the then Emperor Wilhelm II.
The church building reached a height of 113 meters with the slender church tower. It was destroyed during a bombardment in November 1943, and it was decided to leave the tower ruins standing. Underneath today is a memorial room where, among other things, you can see the church’s figure of Christ from the altar when it was still standing.
In 1959-1963, the modern octagonal church building was built around the old church tower. Characteristic of this are the thousands of glass inlays in a predominantly blue color; these are inspired by the stained glass mosaics in the cathedral in Chartres, France.
Bahnhof Friedrichstraße is a railway station that is one of Berlin’s major central traffic hubs. The railway station was opened in February 1882 for local rail traffic, and from 15 May long-distance trains also ran from here.
However, the name Bahnhof Friedrichstraße became established in Berlin’s divided time after the construction of the wall in 1961. Here the station came to function as a border crossing point and also as a shopping opportunity. You could, for example, take the subway from West Berlin; it drove through closed ghost stations before reaching Bahnhof Friedrichstraße, where before passport control there were so-called intershops with various products from the GDR.
Berlin’s city castle with the castle square in front was the center of several German kingdoms, as the great residence of the Electors and Hohenzollern kings was located here. From 1701 it was the residence of the Prussian kings, and from 1871 of the German emperors.
The castle’s history goes back to the 15th century, while its final appearance came about after many alterations and extensions over several centuries. The large castle’s dominant architecture and features were created by Andreas Schlüter with his drawings from the first part of the 18th century.
The old castle was badly damaged during the Second World War, and in 1950 it was finally demolished. Only one of the castle’s portals was preserved, and it can be seen built into the former State Council building from the GDR era; it is located on the south side of the square. From that very portal, Karl Liebknecht proclaimed the Free Socialist German Republic on November 9, 1918, ending many centuries of royal possession of Berlin’s central castle.
During the interwar Weimar Republic, part of Berliner Schloß was converted into a museum. During the Nazi era in Germany, the castle was not used in noteworthy situations. The castle’s fate was sealed by Allied bombings on 3 and 24 February 1945. In the latter raid, the castle was largely burnt down, as the city’s fire protection was almost non-functional.
The Berliner Schloß could have been rebuilt, but in 1950 the government of the GDR chose to blow up the building completely, and the Schloßplatz was laid out as a parade ground. The popular Palace of the Republic/Palast der Republik was built on the site in 1973-1976, which, in addition to housing the GDR’s parliament, has been used for many activities for citizens such as theaters and restaurants. Schloßplatz was then renamed Marx-Engels-Platz.
In 2003, the German Reichstag decided to demolish the otherwise beautiful symbol of the GDR, Palast der Republik, and rebuild the Hohenzollern’s old castle. Demolition of the Palast der Republik began in 2006 and ended in 2008. On the basement ruins of the old castle, the foundation stone of the rebuilt Berliner Schloß was laid on 12 June 2013 by the President of Germany.
The reconstruction is known under the name Humboldtforum, and the rebuilt castle was completed in 2020. The facades to the north, west and south follow the design of the old castle, while the east facade and the interior of the castle were built in a modern look and interior. Humboldtforum opened as home to museums in 2021.
Neue Synagoge, The New Synagogue, was built 1859-1866 in impressive Moorish-Byzantine style with a large gilded dome. It served as the primary synagogue for Berlin’s Jewish community.
The synagogue survived the Kristallnacht in Germany, but it was ravaged by fires during World War II in 1943 and was rebuilt in the 1990s. In addition to being a synagogue, the reconstructed building also houses the city’s Jewish center.
The facade of the Neue Synagoge is richly decorated, and the dome in particular impresses. It shines with its gilded pattern, and it reaches a height of 50 meters.
The name Hakesche Höfe covers a number of particularly beautiful backyards on a row of houses in Rosenthaler Straße. The yards connect Rosenthaler Straße with Sophien Straße.
In the early 1900s, the then owner of the area had the previous buildings demolished, and he planned and built the string of beautifully decorated buildings that now stand. The apartments were furnished according to the standards of the time with all modern conveniences, and not least the farm environment was unique in Berlin, almost like a living market.
Today there are, among other things, places to eat in the backyards, and you can also just wander around and enjoy the many details on the facades.
From 13 August 1961, the Berlin Wall was erected by the GDR; officially to secure the country against immigration from the West and unofficially to stop the galloping emigration to the West through West Berlin. Throughout the rest of the years of Germany’s division, the wall stood separating the two halves of the German capital. In total, the wall around West Berlin was 155 kilometers long.
The Berlin Wall ran lengthwise through Bernauer Straße, literally dividing the residents, who until 1961 had lived a few meters apart. In the documentation center, the history of the wall from 1961 is told, and a viewing platform has been built where you can look down on the part that remains of the original wall on the site.
The German Historical Museum is housed in the former clothing house building, which is considered one of Berlin’s most beautiful Baroque buildings. The foundation stone was laid in 1695, and the building was largely completed in 1706, but it was only fitted out as the planned armory in 1729. The building is the oldest preserved building on Unter den Linden.
In 1875, the site was changed to a military museum, and a renovation and partial reconstruction was initiated in the period 1949-1964. In 1987, the current museum opened, which elegantly guides visitors through German history. The story is divided into themes according to periods, and the many effects make the museum very exciting.
Just behind the Staatsoper is the impressive domed church St. Hedwig’s Cathedral. As a Staatsoper, it was Frederik the Great who commissioned it. The church was consecrated in 1773 and named after the guardian angel of Silesia and Brandenburg, Hedwig von Andechs, who was a countess in Silesia in the 13th century.
The cathedral was built with, among other things, Rome’s Pantheon as a model, and it is part of Frederik the Great’s complex of magnificent buildings around the current Bebelplatz. The complex was named Forum Fredericianum and in the realized plan consisted of the Royal Library on the west side, the Prinz Heinrich mansion on the north side, the Staatsoper and the cathedral on the east side and stately buildings on the south side.
In the 1600s and 1700s, the current Potsdamer Platz was immediately outside the city gate and the Berlin Customs Wall on the road to the city of Potsdam. Already at that time, several roads led from here, and the place was a traffic hub.
The place was really developed when the railway line between Berlin and Potsdam opened in 1838. It was the city’s first railway, and the railway station in Berlin was located here. In 1902, the city’s U-Bahn opened here, and in 1939 the S-Bahn followed. In the time before the Second World War, it had thus become one of Europe’s busiest and busiest squares.
There were a number of prominent buildings around Potsdamer Platz before World War II. Most famous among all Germans was the department store Wertheim, which Georg Wertheim opened in 1897; after several extensions, it had reached a facade length of 330 metres. Another building was the entertainment complex Haus Vaterland, which was opened as Haus Potsdam in 1912. In addition, a number of famous hotels such as Fürstenhof and Palast were located here.
In 1933, the modern Columbushaus was opened on Potsdamer Platz, and here the Nazis set up shop on the upper floors. It was from here, among other things, that part of the planning for the Olympic Games in 1936 took place.
The area east of the square was the center of Germany’s leadership during World War II, and as a result of several bombings, the square lay in ruins when the war ended.
Just a few weeks later, some of the premises that could be disposed of were trading again, and in the following years more places opened, and trams and railways were also running again. Potsdamer Platz was on the border between the British, American and Soviet occupation zones of Berlin and therefore became the center of quite a bit of illegal trade, as you could only walk a few steps away from the authorities. With the Berlin Wall in 1961, however, the square became completely deserted, and all ruins and partially preserved buildings were eventually demolished. The subway continued to run, but the Potsdamer Platz station was one of many that was sealed off as a ghost station, with West Berlin trains merely passing through.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Potsdamer Platz became one of Europe’s largest construction sites, and it once again assumed its central role for the city’s traffic. New buildings sprung up, and in the center you can see a copy of the traffic lights that were set up here in 1924 as one of the first in Europe.
Among today’s modern office buildings, shopping centres, cinemas, restaurants and so on in the reviving square, the Sony Center is probably the most impressive.
Despite Berlin’s status as an American, British, French and Soviet occupation zone after World War II, there was free passage throughout the city for many years. Checkpoint Charlie was the best-known crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin from the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 to 1990, when there was again free and unimpeded access between the districts.
Checkpoint Charlie was located on the border of the American and Soviet zones of Berlin, and was therefore one of the few places that the United States and the Soviet Union came to face each other directly during the Cold War.
The name Checkpoint Charlie was only used in the West and comes from the bland checkpoint with the name C. Charlie is the name of the letter C in the phonetic alphabet. At the checkpoint was a smaller building, which is now on display at the Alliierten Museum (Clayallee 135), depicting the history of the Western Allies, mainly in Berlin, in the decades after World War II. Instead of the original, you can now see a reconstruction of the control building from 1961 on the site of Checkpoint Charlie.
The beautiful Treptower Park southeast of the center of Berlin was laid out in 1876. It is one of Berlin’s lovely green oases, and the park lies beautifully along the banks of the river Spree, which meanders through the German capital.
After World War II, the park became known for the large Soviet memorial, Sovjetisches Ehrenmahl, erected in 1946-1949 in memory of the 5,000 Soviet soldiers buried in the nearby cemetery.
In the center of the monument stands a 12-meter-high statue of a Soviet soldier standing on a broken swastika with a child on his arm and a sword in the other hand. According to tradition, the inspiration for the statue is an episode on April 30, 1945, when a Soviet soldier found a little girl on the street, picked her up and brought her to safety. In front of the statue is a row of 16 sarcophagi, one for each of the 16 Soviet republics that lost compatriots in the war.
In the center of the facility two kneeling soldiers can be seen, and here you can also see stylized Soviet flags made of marble taken from Adolf Hitler’s Reich Chancellery in central Berlin. At the opposite end of the central monument is a statue symbolizing the motherland weeping over the loss of her sons.
Nikolaiviertel is a neighborhood that was built between 1979 and 1987 in a modern variant of not least 18th century style by the East German government to create a new tourist attraction. The district originally dates from around 1200 and is thus one of Berlin’s old quarters on the eastern side of the river Spree.
In terms of sights, the Nikolaikirche is centrally located, and in 1766 the rococo palace Ephram-Palais (Mühlendamm, Poststraße) was built by Veitel-Heine Ephram. It became known as Berlin’s finest corner, but was demolished in 1936 to widen the street Mühlendamm. Facade parts were stored in West Berlin, which donated what was preserved to the GDR in 1982. The mansion was rebuilt 1983-1987 a short distance from its original location.
Alexanderplatz is one of Berlin’s central squares, and it was the center of large parts of public life in the GDR era. The square is named after the Russian Tsar Alexander I.
Until the Second World War, several large, significant buildings were located here, including the department store Tietz (from 1969 Moderne Centrum, now Galeria-Kaufhof) and the city’s police headquarters building. The latter on the site where the GDR building Lærernes Hus/Haus des Lehrers was erected.
Alexanderplatz was destroyed during World War II and rebuilt in a typical post-war GDR style with sculptures, modern high-rise buildings such as the Interhotel and Haus der Elektroindustrie, as well as mosaics of the working people. Alexanderplatz was also intended as a link between Unter den Linden and the communist splendor street, Stalinallee, now called Karl-Marx-Allee.
After the year 2000, there was again massive construction on and around the square. Among these and GDR-era buildings is the famous, large world clock, which was erected in 1969.
The Tiergarten is a large city park with a size of 210 hectares. The Tiergarten’s history goes back to 1527, when the area was designated as a royal hunting area. Back then, it was immediately outside the city walls that encircled the city.
The area was larger than the current Tiergarten, and it was fenced so that the animals would not run away. Animals were also placed in the forest so there was more to hunt.
In 1742 the enclosure fell, as Friedrich II was not as interested in hunting as his predecessors. He also had the area transformed into a colossal pleasure garden, to which the citizens of Berlin were to have access.
Since the 18th century, various regents and leaders have built a number of facilities in the Tiergarten, such as a large number of statues and the magnificent Straße des 17. Juni, which in the Nazi plan for the Welthauptstadt Germania was supposed to be the primary east-west axis and was therefore expanded from 27 to 53 meters in width.
After a lot of destruction during the Second World War, Berlin’s magistrate already decided on 2 June 1945 to restore the Tiergarten, so that it would once again be a large green oasis and pleasure garden for the city’s citizens.
Kurfürstendamm is West Berlin’s grand boulevard. It was already from 1542 the electors’ riding road between the castles Berliner Stadtschloss in the center to Jagdschloss Grunewald in the forests southwest of the capital. From 1875, the stretch was laid out as an actual boulevard on the initiative of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck fixed the width at 53 meters.
On a 540-metre stretch at Kurfürstendamm in Halensee, Werner von Siemens commissioned the world’s first trolleybus, the Elektromote, which at the time was a somewhat more primitive vehicle than today’s buses. Siemens’ bus was an experiment that operated in the period 29 April-13. June 1882. Europe’s once largest amusement park, Lunapark, also arose in Halensee. It opened in 1904 and was called Lunapark from 1909 until its closure in 1933. Kurfürstendamm was the access road here.
The name Kurfürstendamm comes partly from the Electors and partly from the fact that the road was originally laid out as a Dam; i.e. a log road where logs lie across the direction of the road and with sand on top. The name was first used in the 18th century.
At the time of the division of Germany into East Germany and West Germany, Kurfürstendamm West Berlin was the undisputed leading business strip. After German reunification, several other streets and squares became more important in Berlin than before, but along the Kurfürstendamm you can still feel the elegance and fashion of its heyday.
Several sights are located along the street; e.g. the traffic tower Verkehrskanzel (Joachimstaler Platz) from 1955, the café Café Kranzler (Kurfürstendamm 18-19) from 1958 and the converted cinema from 1928; Schaubühne (Lehniner Platz). The cinema was called Universum and was Berlin’s largest at the time.
In 1696-1699, Schloß Charlottenburg was built in Italian Baroque for Elector Sophie Charlotte. She had obtained the plot of land outside Berlin and let the architect Johann Arnold Nering plan the construction of a summer castle. Nering died soon after, and the work was taken over by Martin Grünberg. In 1699 it was quite a small castle compared to today, and then the name was Lützenburg.
After the coronation in 1701 in Königsberg of Elector Friedrich as Prussian king and Sophie Charlotte as queen, a major expansion was started. Before completion, Sophie Charlotte died in 1705, and the king gave the castle its current name in her memory and honour.
The architect Eosander von Göthe was responsible for the construction, which included, among other things, the 50-metre high, central dome tower from the years 1709-1712. It also became a castle chapel and an orangery that acted as a winter garden for plants from the fine baroque garden.
Friedrich I died in 1713, and subsequently Friedrich Wilhelm I rarely used the castle, which was not invested in during his reign. It was only with Friedrich II that something happened again with Schloß Charlottenburg; the new king made the place his residence from 1740, and he had the old part of the castle remodeled. The king also had the Neue Flügel/Knobelsdorff-Flügel wing built in the rococo style of the time.
Friedrich Wilhelm II was responsible for the final expansion. Not least he had the Castle Theater/Schloßtheater and a small orangery built in the western wing.
Throughout the 1900s, the elegant setting changed purpose several times, and after World War II, part of the facility was destroyed. A reconstruction was started and Schloß Charlottenburg is the only royal residence preserved from the time of the Hohenzollern.
The castle is worth seeing and is set up as a museum. Here is very interesting interior; eg the Gyldne Galleri/Goldene Gallerie, and then there is also the castle garden, which was laid out as a French baroque garden in 1687 and later partially changed to an English landscape garden.
In the garden are several buildings, including the Belvedere/Belvedere teahouse from 1788, the Neapolitan-style villa Nye Pavillon/Neue Pavillon from 1824-1825 and a mausoleum from 1810.
Berlin’s radio tower Funkturm was built by Heinrich Straumer in the years 1924-1926 on the occasion of the third German radio exhibition. In 1929, the world’s first television signals were broadcast from here, and in 1935, the first regular television program in Germany was broadcast from here.
Funkturm is 147 meters high and was originally just a transmission tower. Later, a restaurant was built at a height of 52 meters and a viewing platform 125 meters up. In relation to the height, the Funkturm’s base of around 20×20 meters is small, and the tower therefore appears particularly slim and elegant.
A curiosity about the Funkturm is that it rests on porcelain insulators. They were built in to prevent the transmission power on the medium wave tower from going through the tower and into the ground instead of into the air. When the public gained access to the tower, it was grounded through the elevator shaft, so there was no risk of massive electrical shocks.
Potsdam is the capital of the state of Brandenburg and one of Germany’s most beautiful baroque cities. With a history of over 1000 years, there are naturally many sights. Potsdam is a former royal residence, and from this time there are beautiful palaces and buildings of great historical interest. It was also here that the Potsdam Conference was held in connection with the end of the Second World War.
Alter Markt forms the center of Potsdam, and the square is surrounded by interesting buildings. Altes Rathaus is the city’s former town hall. It was built 1753-1755 and today it houses the Potsdam Museum. South of the town hall is Palast Barberini, which today now an art museum. To the south is the Potsdamer Stadtschloss palace, which was the residence of the Electors of Brandenburg and the Kings of Prussia. On Alter Markt you can also see the beautiful classicist domed church, Nikolaikirche.
Spandau is a district in Berlin, but nevertheless it is its own city with a number of attractions. The Citadel/Zitadelle from the 16th century is a former defence, prison and treasury. It is now open to visitors and is one of the city’s most interesting places.
Spandau’s old town, Altstadt (Markt), is also worth a trip. It is located on an island opposite the Zitadelle, and here it is pleasantly provincial. The neighborhood goes back many centuries; Sankt Nikolaj Kirke/St.-Nikolai-Kirche (Reformationplatz) is, for example, from the 13th century.
The Köpenick district southeast of Berlin is its own little city within the city. Köpenick is surrounded by forests and lakes and is therefore a relaxing haven relatively close to the center of the German capital.
The old part of the city has many cozy narrow streets and alleys. The biggest attraction here is the atmosphere and the large neo-Gothic town hall, Rathaus Köpenick (Alt-Köpenick 21), built 1901-1904. It is at the town hall that the story of the Captain from Köpenick took place – in 1906, Wilhelm Voigt dressed up as a captain and defrauded the city government of a large sum of money.
The castle in Köpenick was built in the middle of the 16th century by Elector Joachim II as a hunting castle in the Renaissance style. In the 17th century, the castle was rebuilt in the current Baroque style. It is Berlin’s oldest preserved castle. Sweden’s King Gustav Adolph lived in the castle for a time during the Thirty Years’ War. Today, Schloß Köpenick offers various collections, and it stands beautifully and newly restored.
Oranienburg is a town immediately north of Berlin, and it is a pleasant destination for a trip. Oranienburg lies outside Berlin’s city limits and thus in the federal state of Brandenburg. The town was founded as Bötzow in the 12th century and today offers several attractions.
Oranienburg Castle was built in 1652 in the Dutch style, hence the name, which is derived from the Dutch Oranje. The town itself was named after the castle a few years later. In 1688, the castle was rebuilt by Elector Friedrich III into one of Brandenburg’s finest baroque castles.
During Germany’s Nazi era, the castle was used as SS barracks until 1938, and here the orangery served as horse stables. After a rebuild in 1938, the site became the seat of a police academy. After the war, the castle served as barracks for the GDR’s Volkspolizei and for the country’s border troops. In 1997 the castle was handed over to the city of Oranienburg and it has now been opened. Among other things, you can see Den Orange Sal/Orange Saal.
Französische Straße 23
lafayette-berlin.de
Tauentzienstraße 21
kadewe.de
Hermannplatz
karstadt.de
Alexanderplatz 9
galeria-kaufhof.de
Potsdamer Platz
potsdamer-platz-arkaden.de
Kurfürstendamm 231
karstadt.de
Alexanderplatz, Friedrichstraße, Kurfürstendamm, Wilmersdorfer Straße
Zoo Berlin
Hardenbergplatz 8
zoo-berlin.de
Aquarium Berlin
Hardenbergplatz 8
aquarium-berlin.de
Deutsches Technikmuseum
Trebbiner Straße 9
dtmb.de
Film Park Babelsberg
August-Bebel-Str. 26-53
filmpark.de
Sea Life & AquaDom
Spandauer Straße 3
sealifeeurope.com
Berlin’s history began with the two villages of Berlin and Cölln, both of which were granted commercial property rights in the 13th century. The originally Slavic Berlin was located on the eastern bank of the River Spree at the site of the Nikolaiviertel neighborhood today. In the 1000-1100s, German settlers came to the area, and on an island in Spree opposite Berlin they founded Cölln.
In the 1100s, the area came under the field county Brandenburg, founded in 1157 by Albrecht I Bjørnen, and from him comes the bear, which today can be seen in Berlin’s city arms and countless places as one of the capital’s landmarks.
Throughout the 13th century, the German continued to dominate, while Berlin’s Slavic influence gradually disappeared, thus the two cities acted as a unified city, although they were not officially merged officially in 1709. From the 13th century, the year 1237 was considered the city’s total founding.
Trade rose in the Baltic Sea region, where the importance of the Hanse Association increased over the centuries, and this resulted in significant growth in Berlin in the figure.
However, a major fire raged in 1380, and in addition to buildings, most of the city’s written history also perished. However, Berlin grew out of the fire, and by the end of the century the double city of Berlin-Cölln had about 8,000 inhabitants.
In 1415, Friedrich I became the leader of the field county of Brandenburg, and it became important for Berlin’s leadership and development over the following five hundred years.
Friedrich was of the genus Hohenzollern, whose name comes from the Zollern area and the hometown of Hohenzollern in the present southern German state of Württemberg. As a field tomb in Brandenburg, he and the many successors of the genus who ruled until the fall of the monarchy in 1918 gained control of Berlin.
The successor Friedrich II came after Friedrich I’s death in 1440, and the dynasty’s titles were, through generations, cure princes before they became Prussian kings to eventually be German emperors.
In the years 1443-1451, the first city castle in Berlin was built, and when the Hohenzollern family moved their residence from Brandenburg to Berlin, it led to new growth with everything that came with a court and the status of a residence city.
In the short term, however, there were also negative aspects of the new status. The people objected to the construction of the centrally located castle, but did not win this minor revolt and instead were granted certain political and economic privileges. As the chief residence of Berlin, Berlin could no longer be a free city and member of the Hanseatic League, which changed the nature of the trade.
In 1530, Elector Joachim I chose to lay out the large area, now the green oasis Tiergarten, as a royal hunting area. The decision of public access in the 17th century and the conversion to park in 1740 meant that Berlin has such a colossal park almost in the middle of the city.
The Reformation washed over Europe in the 16th century, when both Berlin and the city’s princes became Lutheran in 1539. The following year, Joachim II carried out the Protestant Reformation in the state of Brandenburg; Here ecclesiastical properties and values were secularized, giving regents the means to establish the Kurfürstendamm splendor.
The plague hit Berlin in the 16th century, and it killed a significant portion of the population. About 4,000 became victims of the disease during its breed in 1576. At the end of the century, 12,000 lived in Berlin-Cölln.
Thirty Years War in the period 1618-1648 brought downturns for Berlin. The population dropped significantly and about one third of the houses in the city are believed to be destroyed. After the war, however, Berlin was quickly rebuilt and expanded; not least because of Friedrich Wilhelm nicknamed the Great Kurfürst’s visions of a strengthened Prussia. He ruled 1640-1688, and it created stability and great power for the Elector and the Brandenburg, which he set free from Polish supremacy, paving the way for the coming kingdom of Prussia.
Part of the wealth was created through growth, which included, among other things, persecuted Jews and Huguenots invited to the city. Under Friedrich Wilhelm, the city reached a population of 20,000. The street Unter den Linden was built this time; just like the suburbs of Friedrichswerder and Dorotheenstadt.
Friedrich Wilhelm’s son became the ruler of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia in 1688, and in 1701 he became the first Prussian king named Friedrich I. He made Berlin the capital of the new kingdom.
The time with, among other things, the king’s daughter-in-law, Sophie Charlotte, at the head led to a great cultural and scientific flourishing, where diligently built. An example is the castle in Charlottenburg, which was started by Friedrich I. Together with major contemporary construction projects, Berlin became a major international city, with the population increasing to 55,000 in 1709. It was precisely this year that the cities of Berlin and Cölln were laid officially together and formed Berlin.
The importance of Prussia increased in Europe, and with the growth of the country grew Berlin, which was the center of art and culture of Prussia, and it was here also that the country’s army was formed and built. The army’s importance later also became the basis for much of the city’s industrialization, with the king providing economic benefits for the development and production of weapons in the city. This commitment made the city technologically strong for the future.
As a Protestant country and king, he also allowed greater immigration by Protestants from not least other German states and Switzerland.
In 1740 King Frederick II, Frederick the Great, came to the throne, and he reigned for 46 years. Frederick the Great supported the thinking, and among the well-known philosophers from Berlin at this time is Moses Mendelssohn.
It also turned into large buildings under Friedrich II; not least the grand plan of the Forum Fridericianum (today Bebelplatz), which was to be a new cultural center in the middle of the city with a new residence castle, opera and other performances that can still be seen today.
Several times during the boom in the 18th century, Berlin was besieged and invaded: in the Seven Years’ War against Austria in 1757 and by Russia in 1760.
With Frederick the Great’s successor, Friedrich Wilhelm II, came a period of stagnation. The new king was not a supporter of the Enlightenment era, and he introduced, among other things, censorship and various reprisals that slowed the city’s growth. He also built new city walls, so in several ways the time was a step back for Berlin.
Berlin were conquered under Napoleon and occupied in the years 1806-1813. However, the city’s development both during and after the invasion, and Berlin became an ever-greater competitor to Vienna as the dominant city in the German-speaking area. Thus, Berlin’s population rose from 200,000 to 400,000 in the first half of the 19th century, making it one of Europe’s largest cities.
Berlin was the center of the bourgeoisie’s attempt at a democratic revolution against Friedrich Wilhelm IV in 1848. The attempt was thwarted, which led to some stagnation in the political life of the city in the years that followed.
However, economically and industrially, the city was rapidly developing. The railroad’s construction from around 1840 made Berlin even more central in commercial terms. Canals were created for the rivers Oder and the Rhine and on to the North Sea. In 1866, Berlin became the seat of the government of the North German Confederation, and after the German assembly in 1871 under Emperor Wilhelm I and Chancellor Bismarck, Berlin became the capital of the entire German Empire.
The city continued its tremendous growth. From a population of 200,000 in 1819 and 900,000 in 1871, it rose to 1.9 million inhabitants in 1900. Economically, things went well. In Berlin, bankers, industrialists and others gathered with an interest and opportunity to drive development.
For the citizens of the city great progress was also made for decades up to the year 1900. The worn sewers were modernized, and from 1896 the city’s first subway line was established; it opened in 1902.
With the unification of the many German states and thereby the formation of the German Empire in 1871, the king had become emperor.
Up to the start of World War I in 1914, Berlin was an industrial giant, but the war put an abrupt halt to the city’s economic development. Germany had become involved in the war, many thought would end with a swift victory. However, it turned into a four-year war in which both acts of war and the British blockade of the country made daily life difficult.
After the defeat in 1918, the genus Hohenzollern had to abdicate, and in the Reichstag it was decided to establish the Weimar Republic.
The situation of the Weimar Republic was not easy. Internationally, Germany had been subjected to enormous war damage reparations with the end of World War I, and these were some years when both Communists and later Nazis formed parties and sought armed or political power.
For Berlin’s city government, the situation was also quite different in 1920, because this year several suburbs and the cities around the capital became administratively part of Berlin, which eventually gained about four million inhabitants.
From 1924, however, the situation improved with, among other things, American aid, a possible healthier economic policy and the fact that Berlin was one of Europe’s absolute industrial centers. It became Europe’s largest industrial city, and also flourished the culture where people such as architect Walter Gropius, physicist Albert Einstein and author Bertolt Brecht worked here.
By 1922, many railways to cities around Berlin had been electrified and assembled to Berlin’s S-Bahn, and in 1926 the Tempelhof airport was opened. Berlin was seriously active and developing in the 1920s.
However, unemployment was high, and the international economic depression also hit Berlin and Germany, where militia under the control of the Nazis and Communists struck the streets.
After the 1933 election, President Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of the Nazis after the Nazi election victory. Reichstag burned that year, and after Hindenburg’s death, Hitler became the chancellor and leader, which put a great mark on Berlin as well as Germany and large parts of the world.
Throughout the 1930s, Berlin’s economy developed tremendously. In 1936, the city hosted the Olympic Games, which became an outlet with impressive buildings and vivid images that went around the world.
One of the big plans for Berlin was colossal construction through much of downtown. It was Albert Speer’s design for what was to make Berlin the World Capital Germania / Welthauptstadt Germania. Some parts of the plans were built, but in many ways World War II put an end to the development of the city.
Throughout World War II, Berlin was the center of Germany’s political and military leadership, making it a natural target for the Allies at the time the war turned.
In the last year of the war, Berlin was subjected to massive bombings, and after fierce fighting in the streets of Berlin in May 1945, the Soviet Red Army with Marshal Shukov in the lead occupied the shattered German capital.
In August 1945, Potsdam hosted the conference, which sealed the fate of Germany and Europe as divided areas of interest. Berlin was divided into two zones, the Soviet and the Western, which again formally consisted of a British, a French and an American zone.
In June 1948, the Western Allies introduced separate city government in its total zone, and a West German currency was introduced. The Soviet Union initiated a physical blockade of the borough, which created the famous Air Bridge with supplies. However, all West Berliners were offered food and shopping in East Berlin. The air bridge lasted from June 26, 1948 to May 11, 1949.
In 1949, Berlin became a new capital, this time in the new state of the GDR, while West Berlin gained regional control in the Federal Republic of West Germany.
After the death of the Soviet Union leader Josef Stalin in 1953, forces in Moscow tried to reunite Germany through the removal of DDR’s Walter Ulbricht. The plan failed, and it ended with a general strike in the GDR on June 17, and since the East German police could not stifle the strike that brought with it the desire for more democracy, the Soviet military had to be used to reintroduce the order in the GDR, which in several decades afterwards was communist.
In August 1961, the 47-kilometer-long Berlin Wall was erected as a physical part of the city. The wall stood with only a few transitions, including Checkpoint Charlie, until 1989-1990, when the German reunion was implemented. The wall was erected to ensure that the rising flight of East Germans to the West could stop, and with the wall came both isolation of West Berlin and an East Berlin, which as capital had to ensure surveillance of the wall and the border, where over the years there were many escape attempts.
In East Berlin, however, much else was built than the Berlin Wall. Thus, the city center was built over the decades with the GDR as a capital with Palast der Republik as both the center of the people and the government, the Fernsehturm as the city’s mighty TV tower, huge residential areas with commercial buildings and the Soviet-inspired splendor buildings along the present Karl-Marx-Allee.
With Germany’s reunification on October 3, 1990, Berlin again became the capital of all of Germany, and a massive construction was initiated. It included all the government buildings and public institutions to be established, the infrastructure to integrate two cities into one, and not least the area around the old traffic center around Potsdamer Platz, which became Europe’s largest building site these years.
The overall city ensured that the population increased again. The peak in numbers remains during World War II, when the city in 1942 housed nearly 4.5 million people. Today, Berlin’s population is just over 3.5 million.
Brandenburger Tor, Berlin[/caption]
Overview of Berlin
Berlin is Germany’s largest city with its 3.5 million inhabitants and at the same time one of Europe’s great historical metropolises. The city is the former residence of the Hohenzollern rulers and for centuries the center of the great German cultural nation, which has given the world countless famous artists, thinkers and scientists.
Berlin was in many ways also the center of the world through the 20th century. This is where the Cold War was hottest with the United States and the Soviet Union on each side of the Berlin Wall. The wall is gone today, but you can see parts of it around the city, and you can see a lot of other sights from both the cold war era as well as other periods of German history as the nazi time from 1933-1945.
There are many beautiful buildings from the dominant architectural styles through the last several centuries, and modern-day buildings are found in abundance from the time since the German reunification became a reality in 1990. There are also places where old and new is mixed, like on the famous Reichstag building.
About the Whitehorse travel guide
Contents: Tours in the city + tours in the surrounding area
Published: Released soon
Author: Stig Albeck
Publisher: Vamados.com
Language: English
About the travel guide
The Whitehorse travel guide gives you an overview of the sights and activities of the Canadian city. Read about top sights and other sights, and get a tour guide with tour suggestions and detailed descriptions of all the city’s most important churches, monuments, mansions, museums, etc.
Whitehorse is waiting for you, and at vamados.com you can also find cheap flights and great deals on hotels for your trip. You just select your travel dates and then you get flight and accommodation suggestions in and around the city.
Read more about Whitehorse and Canada
Canada Travel Guide: https://vamados.com/canada
City tourism: https://visitwhite-horse.ca
Main Page: https://www.vamados.com/
Buy the travel guide
Click the “Add to Cart” button to purchase the travel guide. After that you will come to the payment, where you enter the purchase and payment information. Upon payment of the travel guide, you will immediately receive a receipt with a link to download your purchase. You can download the travel guide immediately or use the download link in the email later.
Use the travel guide
When you buy the travel guide to Whitehorse you get the book online so you can have it on your phone, tablet or computer – and of course you can choose to print it. Use the maps and tour suggestions and you will have a good and content-rich journey.
Bahnhof Friedrichstraße is a railway station that is one of Berlin’s major central traffic hubs. The railway station was opened in February 1882 for local rail traffic, and from 15 May long-distance trains also ran from here.
However, the name Bahnhof Friedrichstraße became established in Berlin’s divided time after the construction of the wall in 1961. Here the station came to function as a border crossing point and also as a shopping opportunity. You could, for example, take the subway from West Berlin; it drove through closed ghost stations before reaching Bahnhof Friedrichstraße, where before passport control there were so-called intershops with various products from the GDR.
Berlin’s city castle with the castle square in front was the center of several German kingdoms, as the great residence of the Electors and Hohenzollern kings was located here. From 1701 it was the residence of the Prussian kings, and from 1871 of the German emperors.
The castle’s history goes back to the 15th century, while its final appearance came about after many alterations and extensions over several centuries. The large castle’s dominant architecture and features were created by Andreas Schlüter with his drawings from the first part of the 18th century.
The old castle was badly damaged during the Second World War, and in 1950 it was finally demolished. Only one of the castle’s portals was preserved, and it can be seen built into the former State Council building from the GDR era; it is located on the south side of the square. From that very portal, Karl Liebknecht proclaimed the Free Socialist German Republic on November 9, 1918, ending many centuries of royal possession of Berlin’s central castle.
During the interwar Weimar Republic, part of Berliner Schloß was converted into a museum. During the Nazi era in Germany, the castle was not used in noteworthy situations. The castle’s fate was sealed by Allied bombings on 3 and 24 February 1945. In the latter raid, the castle was largely burnt down, as the city’s fire protection was almost non-functional.
The Berliner Schloß could have been rebuilt, but in 1950 the government of the GDR chose to blow up the building completely, and the Schloßplatz was laid out as a parade ground. The popular Palace of the Republic/Palast der Republik was built on the site in 1973-1976, which, in addition to housing the GDR’s parliament, has been used for many activities for citizens such as theaters and restaurants. Schloßplatz was then renamed Marx-Engels-Platz.
In 2003, the German Reichstag decided to demolish the otherwise beautiful symbol of the GDR, Palast der Republik, and rebuild the Hohenzollern’s old castle. Demolition of the Palast der Republik began in 2006 and ended in 2008. On the basement ruins of the old castle, the foundation stone of the rebuilt Berliner Schloß was laid on 12 June 2013 by the President of Germany.
The reconstruction is known under the name Humboldtforum, and the rebuilt castle was completed in 2020. The facades to the north, west and south follow the design of the old castle, while the east facade and the interior of the castle were built in a modern look and interior. Humboldtforum opened as home to museums in 2021.
Neue Synagoge, The New Synagogue, was built 1859-1866 in impressive Moorish-Byzantine style with a large gilded dome. It served as the primary synagogue for Berlin’s Jewish community.
The synagogue survived the Kristallnacht in Germany, but it was ravaged by fires during World War II in 1943 and was rebuilt in the 1990s. In addition to being a synagogue, the reconstructed building also houses the city’s Jewish center.
The facade of the Neue Synagoge is richly decorated, and the dome in particular impresses. It shines with its gilded pattern, and it reaches a height of 50 meters.
The name Hakesche Höfe covers a number of particularly beautiful backyards on a row of houses in Rosenthaler Straße. The yards connect Rosenthaler Straße with Sophien Straße.
In the early 1900s, the then owner of the area had the previous buildings demolished, and he planned and built the string of beautifully decorated buildings that now stand. The apartments were furnished according to the standards of the time with all modern conveniences, and not least the farm environment was unique in Berlin, almost like a living market.
Today there are, among other things, places to eat in the backyards, and you can also just wander around and enjoy the many details on the facades.
From 13 August 1961, the Berlin Wall was erected by the GDR; officially to secure the country against immigration from the West and unofficially to stop the galloping emigration to the West through West Berlin. Throughout the rest of the years of Germany’s division, the wall stood separating the two halves of the German capital. In total, the wall around West Berlin was 155 kilometers long.
The Berlin Wall ran lengthwise through Bernauer Straße, literally dividing the residents, who until 1961 had lived a few meters apart. In the documentation center, the history of the wall from 1961 is told, and a viewing platform has been built where you can look down on the part that remains of the original wall on the site.
The German Historical Museum is housed in the former clothing house building, which is considered one of Berlin’s most beautiful Baroque buildings. The foundation stone was laid in 1695, and the building was largely completed in 1706, but it was only fitted out as the planned armory in 1729. The building is the oldest preserved building on Unter den Linden.
In 1875, the site was changed to a military museum, and a renovation and partial reconstruction was initiated in the period 1949-1964. In 1987, the current museum opened, which elegantly guides visitors through German history. The story is divided into themes according to periods, and the many effects make the museum very exciting.
Just behind the Staatsoper is the impressive domed church St. Hedwig’s Cathedral. As a Staatsoper, it was Frederik the Great who commissioned it. The church was consecrated in 1773 and named after the guardian angel of Silesia and Brandenburg, Hedwig von Andechs, who was a countess in Silesia in the 13th century.
The cathedral was built with, among other things, Rome’s Pantheon as a model, and it is part of Frederik the Great’s complex of magnificent buildings around the current Bebelplatz. The complex was named Forum Fredericianum and in the realized plan consisted of the Royal Library on the west side, the Prinz Heinrich mansion on the north side, the Staatsoper and the cathedral on the east side and stately buildings on the south side.
In the 1600s and 1700s, the current Potsdamer Platz was immediately outside the city gate and the Berlin Customs Wall on the road to the city of Potsdam. Already at that time, several roads led from here, and the place was a traffic hub.
The place was really developed when the railway line between Berlin and Potsdam opened in 1838. It was the city’s first railway, and the railway station in Berlin was located here. In 1902, the city’s U-Bahn opened here, and in 1939 the S-Bahn followed. In the time before the Second World War, it had thus become one of Europe’s busiest and busiest squares.
There were a number of prominent buildings around Potsdamer Platz before World War II. Most famous among all Germans was the department store Wertheim, which Georg Wertheim opened in 1897; after several extensions, it had reached a facade length of 330 metres. Another building was the entertainment complex Haus Vaterland, which was opened as Haus Potsdam in 1912. In addition, a number of famous hotels such as Fürstenhof and Palast were located here.
In 1933, the modern Columbushaus was opened on Potsdamer Platz, and here the Nazis set up shop on the upper floors. It was from here, among other things, that part of the planning for the Olympic Games in 1936 took place.
The area east of the square was the center of Germany’s leadership during World War II, and as a result of several bombings, the square lay in ruins when the war ended.
Just a few weeks later, some of the premises that could be disposed of were trading again, and in the following years more places opened, and trams and railways were also running again. Potsdamer Platz was on the border between the British, American and Soviet occupation zones of Berlin and therefore became the center of quite a bit of illegal trade, as you could only walk a few steps away from the authorities. With the Berlin Wall in 1961, however, the square became completely deserted, and all ruins and partially preserved buildings were eventually demolished. The subway continued to run, but the Potsdamer Platz station was one of many that was sealed off as a ghost station, with West Berlin trains merely passing through.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Potsdamer Platz became one of Europe’s largest construction sites, and it once again assumed its central role for the city’s traffic. New buildings sprung up, and in the center you can see a copy of the traffic lights that were set up here in 1924 as one of the first in Europe.
Among today’s modern office buildings, shopping centres, cinemas, restaurants and so on in the reviving square, the Sony Center is probably the most impressive.
Despite Berlin’s status as an American, British, French and Soviet occupation zone after World War II, there was free passage throughout the city for many years. Checkpoint Charlie was the best-known crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin from the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 to 1990, when there was again free and unimpeded access between the districts.
Checkpoint Charlie was located on the border of the American and Soviet zones of Berlin, and was therefore one of the few places that the United States and the Soviet Union came to face each other directly during the Cold War.
The name Checkpoint Charlie was only used in the West and comes from the bland checkpoint with the name C. Charlie is the name of the letter C in the phonetic alphabet. At the checkpoint was a smaller building, which is now on display at the Alliierten Museum (Clayallee 135), depicting the history of the Western Allies, mainly in Berlin, in the decades after World War II. Instead of the original, you can now see a reconstruction of the control building from 1961 on the site of Checkpoint Charlie.
The beautiful Treptower Park southeast of the center of Berlin was laid out in 1876. It is one of Berlin’s lovely green oases, and the park lies beautifully along the banks of the river Spree, which meanders through the German capital.
After World War II, the park became known for the large Soviet memorial, Sovjetisches Ehrenmahl, erected in 1946-1949 in memory of the 5,000 Soviet soldiers buried in the nearby cemetery.
In the center of the monument stands a 12-meter-high statue of a Soviet soldier standing on a broken swastika with a child on his arm and a sword in the other hand. According to tradition, the inspiration for the statue is an episode on April 30, 1945, when a Soviet soldier found a little girl on the street, picked her up and brought her to safety. In front of the statue is a row of 16 sarcophagi, one for each of the 16 Soviet republics that lost compatriots in the war.
In the center of the facility two kneeling soldiers can be seen, and here you can also see stylized Soviet flags made of marble taken from Adolf Hitler’s Reich Chancellery in central Berlin. At the opposite end of the central monument is a statue symbolizing the motherland weeping over the loss of her sons.
Nikolaiviertel is a neighborhood that was built between 1979 and 1987 in a modern variant of not least 18th century style by the East German government to create a new tourist attraction. The district originally dates from around 1200 and is thus one of Berlin’s old quarters on the eastern side of the river Spree.
In terms of sights, the Nikolaikirche is centrally located, and in 1766 the rococo palace Ephram-Palais (Mühlendamm, Poststraße) was built by Veitel-Heine Ephram. It became known as Berlin’s finest corner, but was demolished in 1936 to widen the street Mühlendamm. Facade parts were stored in West Berlin, which donated what was preserved to the GDR in 1982. The mansion was rebuilt 1983-1987 a short distance from its original location.
Alexanderplatz is one of Berlin’s central squares, and it was the center of large parts of public life in the GDR era. The square is named after the Russian Tsar Alexander I.
Until the Second World War, several large, significant buildings were located here, including the department store Tietz (from 1969 Moderne Centrum, now Galeria-Kaufhof) and the city’s police headquarters building. The latter on the site where the GDR building Lærernes Hus/Haus des Lehrers was erected.
Alexanderplatz was destroyed during World War II and rebuilt in a typical post-war GDR style with sculptures, modern high-rise buildings such as the Interhotel and Haus der Elektroindustrie, as well as mosaics of the working people. Alexanderplatz was also intended as a link between Unter den Linden and the communist splendor street, Stalinallee, now called Karl-Marx-Allee.
After the year 2000, there was again massive construction on and around the square. Among these and GDR-era buildings is the famous, large world clock, which was erected in 1969.
The Tiergarten is a large city park with a size of 210 hectares. The Tiergarten’s history goes back to 1527, when the area was designated as a royal hunting area. Back then, it was immediately outside the city walls that encircled the city.
The area was larger than the current Tiergarten, and it was fenced so that the animals would not run away. Animals were also placed in the forest so there was more to hunt.
In 1742 the enclosure fell, as Friedrich II was not as interested in hunting as his predecessors. He also had the area transformed into a colossal pleasure garden, to which the citizens of Berlin were to have access.
Since the 18th century, various regents and leaders have built a number of facilities in the Tiergarten, such as a large number of statues and the magnificent Straße des 17. Juni, which in the Nazi plan for the Welthauptstadt Germania was supposed to be the primary east-west axis and was therefore expanded from 27 to 53 meters in width.
After a lot of destruction during the Second World War, Berlin’s magistrate already decided on 2 June 1945 to restore the Tiergarten, so that it would once again be a large green oasis and pleasure garden for the city’s citizens.
Kurfürstendamm is West Berlin’s grand boulevard. It was already from 1542 the electors’ riding road between the castles Berliner Stadtschloss in the center to Jagdschloss Grunewald in the forests southwest of the capital. From 1875, the stretch was laid out as an actual boulevard on the initiative of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck fixed the width at 53 meters.
On a 540-metre stretch at Kurfürstendamm in Halensee, Werner von Siemens commissioned the world’s first trolleybus, the Elektromote, which at the time was a somewhat more primitive vehicle than today’s buses. Siemens’ bus was an experiment that operated in the period 29 April-13. June 1882. Europe’s once largest amusement park, Lunapark, also arose in Halensee. It opened in 1904 and was called Lunapark from 1909 until its closure in 1933. Kurfürstendamm was the access road here.
The name Kurfürstendamm comes partly from the Electors and partly from the fact that the road was originally laid out as a Dam; i.e. a log road where logs lie across the direction of the road and with sand on top. The name was first used in the 18th century.
At the time of the division of Germany into East Germany and West Germany, Kurfürstendamm West Berlin was the undisputed leading business strip. After German reunification, several other streets and squares became more important in Berlin than before, but along the Kurfürstendamm you can still feel the elegance and fashion of its heyday.
Several sights are located along the street; e.g. the traffic tower Verkehrskanzel (Joachimstaler Platz) from 1955, the café Café Kranzler (Kurfürstendamm 18-19) from 1958 and the converted cinema from 1928; Schaubühne (Lehniner Platz). The cinema was called Universum and was Berlin’s largest at the time.
In 1696-1699, Schloß Charlottenburg was built in Italian Baroque for Elector Sophie Charlotte. She had obtained the plot of land outside Berlin and let the architect Johann Arnold Nering plan the construction of a summer castle. Nering died soon after, and the work was taken over by Martin Grünberg. In 1699 it was quite a small castle compared to today, and then the name was Lützenburg.
After the coronation in 1701 in Königsberg of Elector Friedrich as Prussian king and Sophie Charlotte as queen, a major expansion was started. Before completion, Sophie Charlotte died in 1705, and the king gave the castle its current name in her memory and honour.
The architect Eosander von Göthe was responsible for the construction, which included, among other things, the 50-metre high, central dome tower from the years 1709-1712. It also became a castle chapel and an orangery that acted as a winter garden for plants from the fine baroque garden.
Friedrich I died in 1713, and subsequently Friedrich Wilhelm I rarely used the castle, which was not invested in during his reign. It was only with Friedrich II that something happened again with Schloß Charlottenburg; the new king made the place his residence from 1740, and he had the old part of the castle remodeled. The king also had the Neue Flügel/Knobelsdorff-Flügel wing built in the rococo style of the time.
Friedrich Wilhelm II was responsible for the final expansion. Not least he had the Castle Theater/Schloßtheater and a small orangery built in the western wing.
Throughout the 1900s, the elegant setting changed purpose several times, and after World War II, part of the facility was destroyed. A reconstruction was started and Schloß Charlottenburg is the only royal residence preserved from the time of the Hohenzollern.
The castle is worth seeing and is set up as a museum. Here is very interesting interior; eg the Gyldne Galleri/Goldene Gallerie, and then there is also the castle garden, which was laid out as a French baroque garden in 1687 and later partially changed to an English landscape garden.
In the garden are several buildings, including the Belvedere/Belvedere teahouse from 1788, the Neapolitan-style villa Nye Pavillon/Neue Pavillon from 1824-1825 and a mausoleum from 1810.
Berlin’s radio tower Funkturm was built by Heinrich Straumer in the years 1924-1926 on the occasion of the third German radio exhibition. In 1929, the world’s first television signals were broadcast from here, and in 1935, the first regular television program in Germany was broadcast from here.
Funkturm is 147 meters high and was originally just a transmission tower. Later, a restaurant was built at a height of 52 meters and a viewing platform 125 meters up. In relation to the height, the Funkturm’s base of around 20×20 meters is small, and the tower therefore appears particularly slim and elegant.
A curiosity about the Funkturm is that it rests on porcelain insulators. They were built in to prevent the transmission power on the medium wave tower from going through the tower and into the ground instead of into the air. When the public gained access to the tower, it was grounded through the elevator shaft, so there was no risk of massive electrical shocks.
Similar to Berlin Travel Guide
