Central Berlin

When I went to see the Holocaust Memorial, I also looked over the central part of Berlin. Below are a few of the places that I took pictures of.

American Embassy

Right next to the Holocaust Memorial is the construction site for the new American Embassy. This has posed problems because of "security concerns": the chance that someone will try to attack it. The American government insisted on a substantial set-back from the street (to help thwart truck bombs, and the like), and this extra wasted open space was not welcomed by the Germans. As of this writing (2007) it's still not completed.

I took pictures of the posts that will (they hope!) block a truck from smashing through up to the side of the building. The steel outer cylinder is much thicker that is usual for such a post. The rightmost picture below shows two completed posts with the final metal caps on top of them. If this were in America and I took pictures like these, I'd probably be arrested as a suspected terrorist trying to assess the strength of their defenses. I'd end up as an enemy combatant. Thankfully in Berlin no one paid any attention to me and my camera.   New Embassy Building.

Building under construction				Security poles at the embassy

British Embassy

A short street was blocked off at either end by rows of metal posts lit up with a red bulb at the top, as you can see at the left below. The entire west side of the street is the front of the fancy new British Embassy, which is the target being protected by the pretty posts with their red lights. The two pictures on the right show the interesting interior of the embassy. I got these off the Internet, but perhaps they have tours of this embassy. (I should check the next time I visit.)

CDU Headquarters

I happened past the headquarters of the CDU party, the Christian Democratic Union (die Christlich-Demokratische Union), one of the largest parties in Germany, on the conservative side and the party of the current Chancelor, Angela Merkel. I had admired pictures of this building because it has a glass-enclosed courtyard around the actual building. (The nice picture at the right is not mine, but was taken off the net.)

This party is represented in all of the German states (Länder) except for Bavaria, which has a sister party, the CSU (the Christian Socialist Union or die Christlich-Soziale Union). This CSU is essentially just the CDU in Bavaria, but Bavaria is often thought of as the "Texas of Germany," needing to feel as if it is special and different. The one-time head of the CSU, Franz Joseph Strauss, caused a furor when he demanded that West Germany have control of the nuclear weapons held on its territory.

The other large party in Germany is the SPD (The Social-Democratic Party of Germany or die Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands). It also has an architecturally interesting headquarters building in Berlin, just a few blocks from where I stayed, but I didn't realize this until after my trip.

Potsdamer Platz

The two pictures at the left below show Potsdamer Platz as it was before World War II: "... the busiest traffic center in all of Europe, and the heart of Berlin's nightlife. It represented the geographical centre of the city, the meeting place of five of its busiest streets." [Wikipedia] At the end of the war is was severely damaged, as shown in the next picture over, and because the Berlin wall ran through it, over the years more and more buildings were torn down, so that it finally became a no-man's land.

Starting in 1990, serious rebuilding started on a modern version of this section of Berlin. All the remaining pictures show the newly constructed Potsdamer Platz, with modern buildings and the strange dome over the central section, which is open to the weather. (I assume the dome sheds water, but I was never there when it was raining.) The bottom row has a couple of sculptures, followed by what I call Berlin's "Spanish Stairs", and a street scene.

John says that the buildings were so expensive that the rents are very high, and even the economic success of this area may be in question.

1899	1903			1945		1989
Potsdamer Platz

Akademie der Künste

The new building for the Berlin Academy of the Arts (die Akademie der Künste) is a strange and controversial addition to the important area of central Berlin called Pariser Platz. I had seen pictures of this building, and they looked so crazy and disconnected (like the three pictures on the right below) that I wanted to see it in person. The actual interior is hard to figure out even when you're inside. Perhaps one can say that it's a little overdone -- interesting but not elegant.