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Photo: Dieter Brügmann, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
From 1941, 12,000 tons of concrete in a 15-m-high and 20-m-diameter cylinder were built to test the load-bearing capacity of the Berlin soils (turns out glacial sands are no good basis for gargantuan architecture) for Albert Speer's Germania buildings. Too massive for later blasting, this is one of the more bizarre remains of the Third Reich.
The Schwerbelastungskörper is a large concrete cylinder located at the intersection of Dudenstraße, General-Pape-Straße, and Loewenhardtdamm in the northwestern part of the borough of Tempelhof in Berlin, Germany. It was built by Adolf Hitler's chief architect Albert Speer to determine the feasibility of constructing large buildings on the area's marshy, sandy ground. Erected between 1941 and 1942 it was meant to test the ground for a massive triumphal arch on a nearby plot. The arch, in the style of the Nazi architectural movement, was to be about three times as large as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France. It was one component of a plan to redesign the center of Berlin as an imposing, monumental capital reflecting the spirit of Nazi Germany as envisioned by Hitler.
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Polizeihistorische Sammlung
Official website (in German). A museum of Berlin's different police forces through the ages, displaying historic uniforms, weapons, and specialist equipment such as cameras. Completing the collection are a photo archive and around 50 police vehicles, which are only viewable on certain 'open doors' days.
The "mother of all airports", according to Sir Norman Foster, is a huge relic of the interwar era. The terminal building, built between 1936 and 1941 immediately south of the city centre, was the hot spot of the Berlin airlift (Berliner Luftbrücke) in 1948-49, but closed as an airport on October 30, 2008. In 1951 a monument was added to its entrance square - then renamed "Airlift Square" -to commemorate the airlifts over the Berlin Blockade. The airport was featured in movies like Billy Wilder's One Two Three. Nowadays, the airfield is a spacious park with many visitors in summer and fall. The terminal building is still fascinating - the halls and neighbouring buildings, intended to become the gateway to Europe, are still some of the largest structures in the world. The terminal building is used as a venue of fashion weeks or fairs. In the 21st century, the former airport was a hot-button political issue: First Tempelhof Airport was the subject of a failed ballot measure to keep it open as an airport. A few years later, a ballot measure to prevent new construction on its outskirts was successful, thus preserving the urban open space at the cost of an exacerbated housing shortage.
Built from 1912-14 in Art Nouveau style and carefully renovated in 1984, this swimming pool (actually two in one building), covered in mosaics and domes, is one of Berlin's most beautiful. A must see for architecture fans.
Visit a play and be amazed by the creativity, which the opera house has won some awards for.
Boasts an open-air cinema and is the great to go to at night.
Became famous from the film named after this street. During the Cold War, the street was split, with one section belonging to East Berlin and one to West Berlin.