Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
century, Hohenzollern princes and princesses moved in and built their palaces here so they
could be near the Prussian king.
Named centuries ago for its thousand linden trees, this was the most elegant street of
Prussian Berlin before Hitler's time, and the main drag of East Berlin after his reign. Hitler
replaced the venerable trees—many 250 years old—with Nazi flags. Popular discontent ac-
tuallydrovehimtoreplantthetrees.Today,UnterdenLindenisnolongeradepressingCold
War cul-de-sac, and its pre-Hitler strolling café ambience has returned. Notice how it is di-
vided, roughly at Friedrichstrasse, into a business section that stretches toward the Branden-
burg Gate, and a culture section that spreads out toward Alexanderplatz. Frederick the Great
wanted to have culture, mainly the opera and the university, closer to his palace, and to keep
business (read: banks) farther away, near the city walls.
(See “Unter den Linden” map,
here
.)
Self-Guided Walk:
As you walk toward the giant TV Tower, the big building you
see jutting out into the street on your right is the
Hotel Adlon.
In its heyday, it hosted
such notables as Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein, and Greta Garbo. This was the setting for
Garbo'smostfamousline,“Ivanttobealone,”utteredinthefilm
GrandHotel.
Damagedby
the Russians just after World War II, the original hotel was closed with the construction of
the nearby Wall in 1961 and later demolished. The grand Adlon was rebuilt in 1997. It was
here that the late Michael Jackson shocked millions by dangling his baby, Blanket, over the
railing(secondbalconyup,onthesideofthehotelnexttotheAcademyofArt).Seehowfar
you can get inside.
