Berlin - Reichstag/Brandenburger Tor Area

It's picture time! I decided to start this off with the main attraction: Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate) and the Reichstag. Since this area was so close to our hostel (about a 20 min walk) I actually ended up going there about four times, which explains why the time of day/weather is so different between some of these pictures.

The Reichstag and Brandenburger Tor are located right in the center of the city in a 'borough' aptly named Mitte (middle). Brandenburger Tor is located on Strasse des 17. Juni/Unter den Linden in Pariser Platz and the Reichstag is less than a block away. To the west of the Gate is the Tiergarten (animal garden) a giant wooded park in the middle of the city, which apparently used to be a hunting ground for the Kaiser back in the day.

Here is a statue right on the edge of the Tiergarten, on the way to Pariser Platz

This is the Holocaust Memorial which is across the street from the Tiergarten and a block away from Brandenburger Tor, officially called Denkmal für die ermorden Juden Europas (Memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe). It consists of thousands of stone slabs that get taller and deeper as you move through the memorial. It is supposed to evoke a sense of the desperation and loneliness of the Jews during the Holocaust.





This is a plaque in front of a small memorial for the homosexuals which were persecuted and killed during, and well after the Holocaust. The memorial consisted of a small dark building with a window you could look through to a screen running a short video clip of two men kissing. Click on the picture to enlarge it.


This is the American Embassy (you can see Brandenburger Tor in the distance on the left). The building was just completed last summer, finally returning to it's original location.

The other side of the Embassy (from Pariser Platz)

Brandenburger Tor at night from the west...

...and from the east during the day (with snow!)

The Reichstag from the side...

...and from the front ("Dem Deutschen Volke" means "to the German people")

Here you can see the work done on the stones to patch up bullet holes from the fighting that took place here in WWII.

This is a memorial right in front of the Reichstag for the German politicians who were killed for opposing the Nazis. Each stone has a person's name, where they died, and what party they belonged to (most were communists).

That's it for now - let me know if you have any questions or want to know more about any of this.