Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
statue to the Louvre in Paris in 1806. After the Prussians defeated Napoleon and got it back
(1813), she was renamed the Goddess of Victory.
The gate sat unused, part of a sad circle dance called the Wall, for more than 25 years.
Now postcards all over town show the ecstatic day—November 9, 1989—when the world
enjoyedthesightofhappyBerlinersjammingthegatelikeflowersonaparadefloat.Pausea
minute and think about struggles for freedom—past and present. (There's actually a special
room built into the gate for this purpose.) Around the gate, look at the information boards
with pictures of how this area changed throughout the 20th century. There's a TI within the
gate (daily 9:30-19:00, S-Bahn: Brandenburger Tor).
TheBrandenburgGate,thecenterofoldBerlin,sitsonamajorboulevardrunningeastto
west through Berlin. The western segment, called Strasse des 17 Juni (named for a workers'
uprising against the DDR government on June 17, 1953), stretches for four miles from the
Brandenburg Gate and Victory Column to the Olympic Stadium. But we'll follow this city
axis in the opposite direction, east, walking along a stretch called Unter den Linden—into
thecoreofoldimperialBerlinandpastwhatwasoncethepalaceoftheHohenzollernfamily
whoruledPrussiaandthenGermany.Thepalace—thereasonforjustaboutallyou'llsee—is
a phantom sight, long gone. Alexanderplatz, which marks the end of this walk, is near the
base of the giant TV Tower hovering in the distance.
• Cross through the gate into...
▲
Pariser Platz
“Parisian Square,” so named after the Prussians defeated Napoleon in 1813, was once filled
with important government buildings—all bombed to smithereens in World War II. For dec-
ades, it was an unrecognizable, deserted no-man's-land—cut off from both East and West
by the Wall. But now it's rebuilt, and the banks, hotels, and embassies that were here before
the bombing have reclaimed their original places—with a few additions: a palace of coffee
(Starbucks)andthesmallKennedysMuseum(describedlater).ThewinnersofWorldWarII
enjoy this prime real estate: The American, French, British, and Soviet (now Russian) em-
bassies are all on or near this square.
Face the gate and look to your left. The
US Embassy
reopened in its historic location in
2008. The building has been controversial: For safety's sake, Uncle Sam wanted more of a
security zone around the building, but the Germans wanted to keep Pariser Platz a welcom-
ing people zone. (Throughout the world, American embassies are the most fortified build-
ings in town.) The compromise: The extra security the US wanted is built into the structure.
Easy-on-the-eyes barriers keep potential car bombs at a distance, and its front door is on the
side farthest from the Brandenburg Gate.
Just to the left, the
DZ Bank building
is by Frank Gehry, famous for Bilbao's organic
Guggenheim Museum,Prague'sDancing House,Seattle'sExperience MusicProject, Chica-
