Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The former
state library
(labeled
Juristische Fakultät,
facing Bebelplatz on the right
with your back to Humboldt University) is where Vladimir Lenin studied during much of
his exile from Russia. If you climb to the second floor of the library and go through the door
opposite the stairs, you'll see a 1968 vintage stained-glass window depicting Lenin's life's
work with almost biblical reverence. On the ground floor is Tim's Espressobar, a great little
café with light food, student prices, and garden seating (€3 plates, Mon-Fri 8:00-20:00, Sat
9:00-17:00, closed Sun, handy WC).
Between the library and the church, the square is closed by one of Berlin's swankiest
lodgings—
Hotel de Rome
, housed in a historic bank building with a spa and lap pool fitted
into the former vault.
The round, Catholic
St. Hedwig's Church,
nicknamed the “upside-down teacup,” was
built by the pragmatic Frederick the Great to encourage the integration of Catholic Silesians
after his empire annexed their region in 1742. (St. Hedwig is the patron saint of Silesia, a
region now shared by Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic.) When asked what the
church should look like, Frederick literally took a Silesian teacup and slammed it upside-
down on a table. Like all Catholic churches in Berlin, St. Hedwig's is not on the street, but
stuckinakindofbacklot—indicating inferioritytoProtestantchurches.Youcanstepinside
the church to see the cheesy DDR government renovation (generally daily until 17:00).
The
German State Opera
was bombed in 1941, rebuilt to bolster morale and to celeb-
rate its centennial in 1943, and bombed again in 1945; it was renovated in 2013.
Cross Unter den Linden to the university side. The Greek-temple-like building set in the
small chestnut-tree-filled park is the
Neue Wache
(the emperor's “New Guardhouse,” from
1816). Converted to a memorial to the victims of fascism in 1960, the structure was trans-
formed again, after the Wall fell, into a national memorial. Look inside, where a replica of
the Käthe Kollwitz statue,
Mother with Her Dead Son,
is surrounded by thought-provoking
silence.ThismarksthetombsofGermany'sunknownsoldierandanunknownconcentration
camp victim. The inscription in front reads, “To the victims of war and tyranny.” Read the
entire statement in English (on wall, left of entrance). The memorial, open to the sky, incor-
porates the elements—sunshine, rain, snow—falling on this modern-day
pietà.
• After the Neue Wache, the next building you'll see is Berlin's pink-yet-formidable
Zeughaus (arsenal). Dating from 1695, it's considered the oldest building on the boulevard,
and now houses the...
This fantastic museum is a two-part affair: the pink former Prussian arsenal building and the
I. M. Pei-designed annex. The main building (fronting Unter den Linden) houses the per-
