Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TOP SIGHT
POTSDAMER PLATZ
ALDO PAVAN/GETTY IMAGES ©
Potsdamer Platz 2.0 was built from scratch in the 1990s on terrain once bifurcated by the
Berlin Wall. After 1989, developers quickly swooped on the real estate on the former 'death
strip' and pretty soon an international cast of star architects, including Helmut Jahn, Renzo
Piano and Rafael Moneo, got to work. Their goal: to create a modern reinterpretation of the
once historic Potsdamer Platz, which was Berlin's central traffic, entertainment and com-
mercial hub until WWII sucked all life out of the area.
Today there are three sections, of which the Sony Center is the flashiest and most visitor-
friendly, with a central plaza canopied by a glass roof that erupts in a light show of changing
colours after dark. Segments from the Berlin Wall stand in the corner of Potsdamer Strasse
and Ebertstrasse. Across Potsdamer Strasse, DaimlerCity has big hotels, a shopping mall,
sprinkles of public art and entertainment venues that host movie premieres and galas during
