Berlin

We travelled by train from Potsdam to Berlin - with our bikes and stayed in Berlin for two days. We wanted to allow ourselves sufficient time to see some of the key sights- which we did by bike, tube and tram.


Here are some of the places we visited

Fernsehturm – Alexanderplatz

The TV tower, known as the Fernsehturm or the Tele-spargel (toothpick) is one of the largest structures in Europe. The total length to the top of the spire is 365m or 1197 ft. It was built in 1969 by a team of architects with the help of Swedish experts. It contains a concrete shaft, a steel-cladded metal sphere and a TV antenna. The sphere contains a revolving restaurant (Telecafé) at 207m and a viewing platform at a height of 203m.

Site of Hitler's bunker

The Holocaust Memorial

In May 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the fall of the Nazi regime and the end of World War II, the city of Berlin dedicated their Holocaust Memorial, designed to commemorate the murder of six million Jews at the hands of Hitler and his forces. 

The Holocaust Memorial, officially named the Monument to the Murdered Jews in Europe, can be visited at anytime – night or day. A subterranean Information Centre, located at the base of the memorial, offers stories of families and individuals who faced the wrath of the Nazi party and provides further information about the design and construction of the memorial

Occupying about 205,000 square feet (19,000 square meters) of space near the Brandenburg Gate and just a short distance from where the ruins of Hitler’s bunker is buried, the Berlin Holocaust Memorial is made up of 2,711 gray stone slabs that bear no markings, such as names or dates.

The slabs undulate in a wave-like pattern. Each is a five-sided monolith, individually unique in shape and size. Some are only ankle high while others tower over visitors. The paths that are shaped between the slabs undulate as well. Eisenman (the designer) hoped to create a feeling of groundlessness and instability; a sense of disorientation.

The Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate was commisioned by Friedrich Wilhelm II to represent peace. The Gate was designed by Karl Gotthard Langhans, the Court Superintendent of Buildings, and the main architectural design of this landmark hasn't changed since it was first constructed in 1791

The Brandenburg Gate is located west of the city centre at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which Berlin was once entered. The Brandenburg Gate became infamous in the Cold War, it stood between East and West Germany, becoming part of the Berlin Wall.

The Reichstag, the seat of the German Parliament

The building was constructed between 1884 and 1894. In 1933 fire broke out in the building, destroying much of the Reichstag. It is to date still unclear who started the fire, but the Communists were blamed.

During Berlin's division the West German parliament assembled here once a year as a way to indicate that Bonn was only a temporary capital. After the unification the decision was soon made to move the Bundestag (Germany's Parliament) from Bonn to Berlin. This decision resulted in a renovation which started in 1995 and was completed in 1999.

The Olympiastadion (Olympic Stadium) 

There have been two stadiums on the site: the present facility, and one that is called the Deutsches Stadion which was built for the aborted 1916 Summer Olympics.

The current Olympiastadion was originally built for the 1936 Summer Olympics in the southern part of the Reichssportfeld (today Olympiapark Berlin). During World War II, the area suffered little damage. After the war, the British military occupation used the northern part of the Reichssportfeld as its headquarters until 1994. From 1951 to 2005, the Olympischer Platz had a giant antenna transmitting for all the portable radios in Berlin.

Aside from its use as an Olympic stadium, it has a strong footballing tradition. Historically, it is the ground of club Hertha BSC. It was also used for 3 matches in the 1974 FIFA World Cup. It hosted six matches, including the final, in the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

:

Where Hockey was played in the 1936 Olympics

Check Point Charlie

The Topography of Terror

The Topography of Terror (Topographie des Terrors) is an outdoor museum in Berlin. It is located in Niederkirchnerstrasse, formerly Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, on the site of buildings which during the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945 were the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS, the principal instruments of repression during the Nazi era.

The buildings that housed the Gestapo and SS headquarters were largely destroyed by Allied bombing during early 1945 and the ruins demolished after the war. The boundary between the American and Soviet zones of occupation in Berlin ran along the Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, so the street soon became a fortified boundary, and the Berlin Wall ran along the south side of the street, renamed Niederkirchnerstrasse, from 1961 to 1989. The wall itself was never removed from the site, and the section adjacent to the Topography of Terror site is the second-longest segment still in place.