Photo: Times, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
A cuboid made of concrete. On the front side of the cuboid is a window, through which visitors can see a short film of two kissing men. The video will be changed every two years and will also show kissing lesbians.
The Memorial to Homosexuals persecuted under Nazism in Berlin was opened on 27 May 2008.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas
A vast Holocaust memorial designed by the American architect Peter Eisenman. Opened in the spring of 2005, this gigantic abstract artwork covering an entire block near the Brandenburg Gate, including an underground information centre with extensive details on the Holocaust and the people who died during it. The blocks start out at ground level on the outer edges of the memorial, and then grow taller towards the middle, where the ground also slopes downwards. Entry to the information centre is free although priority is given to prebooked groups so there may be a short queue.
Brandenburger Tor
The only surviving Berlin city gate and a potent symbol of the city. This is the point where Straße des 17. Juni becomes Unter den Linden. The gate was designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans in 1791 and was intended to resemble the Acropolis in Athens. The Brandenburg Gate now symbolizes reunification, after dividing East and West Berlin for decades. This is the site of Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev open this gate, Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall" speech.
One of the best spas in town, next to the Brandenburg Gate in the Adlon Hotel.
With an impressive, circus-tent-like roof over its courtyard and remains of the pre-war Hotel Esplanade incorporated into the modern structure.
The octagonal square right east of Potsdamer Platz was recreated to resemble its pre-war layout, but the buildings are modern rather than historic replicas and much taller than their counterparts from before the war. There is a diverse mix of uses among the buildings, which include the Embassy of Canada.
The large square in front of the Brandenburg Gate contains the French and American embassies, the rebuilt Hotel Adlon, and the new building of the Academy of Arts.