Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1
he sign also maps the astonishing number of other bunkers that were once in the
vicinity, the largest one being under the
Neues Reichskanzlei
(New Reich Chancellery),
the vast building designed by Albert Speer in 1938 as part of the Nazi remodelling of
the government area around Wilhelmstrasse. his gigantic complex ran to the north
of and almost the length of Vossstrasse. Today nothing remains, for even though the
Chancellery building survived the war, it was torn down in a fit of revenge by the
conquering Soviet army, who used its marble to fashion the memorial on Strasse des
17 Juni (see p.103) and the huge war memorial at the Soviet military cemetery in
Treptower Park (see p.128).
In den Ministergärten
he lands immediately west of Hitler's bunker were, during the Wall years, part of
the death strip separating East and West Berlin. On reunification it was decided to
resuscitate this part of the Regierungsviertel by inviting the government ministries
from Germany's sixteen states to build on a street named
In den
Ministergärten
in
their honour. However, only seven took up the offer - the rest chose to avoid the
historically charged site - with all opting for similarly dynamic modern designs
replete with imposing entrances, atria and exhibition spaces. For the most part,
however, they simply house o
ces and ministerial accommodation.
Wilhelmstrasse
South of In den Ministergärten, An der Kolonnade leads east to
Wilhelmstrasse
which,
from 1871 to the end of the hird Reich, was Imperial Berlin's Whitehall and Downing
Street rolled into one. Its many ministries and government buildings included the
Chancellery and, after the Republic was established in 1918, the Presidential Palace.
Today little remains, but trying to figure out what was where can be compelling, and
information boards with photos and descriptions of the former buildings have helpfully
been placed along the street. Most structures are fairly dull apartment buildings that
once housed high-ranking East Germans; the only one that stands out is an apparent
airport control tower that turns out to be the
Czech Embassy
. North of here is an
exhibition on the
Stasi
and beyond it a road closure that announces the presence of the
British Embassy
. his counter-terrorism measure allows you to properly appreciate the
eye-pleasing, quirky building by Michael Wilford; its austere stone facade is broken up
at the centre by a riot of shapes in cool grey and violent purple - playful elements
thought to reflect the British sense of humour and style.
Stasi: Die Ausstellung
Mon-Sat 10am-6pm • Free •
W
bstu.bund.de • U- & S-Brandenburger Tor
Accessed via a pathway opposite the junction of Wilhelmstrasse with Hannah-Arendt-
Strasse,
Stasi: Die Ausstellung
(Stasi: he Exhibition) provides a sobering display on
the feared East German Secret Police. he material is presented by the government
commission responsible for sifting through and reconstructing Stasi files, and whose
work includes the painstaking reassembly of documents hastily shredded as the GDR's
regime came to an end. We are talking about sixteen thousand sacks of shredded
documents: for almost two decades some thirty workers puzzled together around ten
documents a day, but at that rate the work wouldn't have been completed until 2395.
he project's saviour came with the invention of a remarkable E-Puzzler machine. he
world's most sophisticated pattern recognizer, it compares the pattern, texture,
thickness of paper and the shape of the fragments and can process ten thousand sheets
an hour - bringing the estimated date forward to 2014. he exhibition is briefer than
the one at the former Stasi headquarters on Normannenstrasse (see p.143), but it does
contain several intriguing intelligence devices, including hidden cameras, tiny tape
recorders, a big toolbox for producing counterfeit documents and even the proverbial
