| Unter den Linden tips and photos posted by real travelers and Berlin locals.
Unter den Linden, Berlin-Mitte
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This was my favourite Berlin "Walk", picture taken from viewing platform of TV Tower. You can see Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathederal) just before start of Unter den Linden (One of the most famous streets in Berlin) leading up to Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburgor Tor - last city gate remaining, built in 1791) and the Reichstag (German Parliament) and Reichstag Dome.
Travel my train to Zoologischer Garten S Bahn or U Bahn and catch Bus 100 for a pre walk tour down Unter den Linden, exit at Alexanderplatz and walk back.
Some of the many sites to see on the walk
* Alexanderplatz (communist designed commercial square and transport hub)
* TV Tower (365m) is worth going up on clear days and queues are not long
* Marienkirche - Gothic Lutheran Church built 1270 (free tour (donation) 1pm)
* Neptunbrunnen - Neptune Fountain (within Alexanderplatz)
* World Time Clock (within Alexanderplatz)
* Statue of Marx and Engles in the park opposite Alexanderplatz
* Schlossbrucke (Bridge) that leads over river onto start of Unter den Linden
* Berliner Dom (Cathederal, royal crypts / climb 270 steps for good views)
* Unter den Linden (One of the most famous streets in Berlin)
* Deutsches Historisches Museum, History museum
* Kronprinzenpalais, Crown Princes Palace
* Neue Wache, war memorial (neo classical architecture)
* Humboldt University (statue of Helmholtz in front)
* Reiterdenkmal Friedrich, (Equestrian Statue of Frederick the Great)
* Staatsoper, State Opera House (neo classical farcade)
* Bebelplatz, old opera square (site of the book burning)
* Alte Bibliothek, old state library (beautiful baroque building)
* Altes Palais, neo-classical palace (behind Alte Bibliothek)
* Staatsbibliothek, state library (ivy-clad building)
* Russische Botschaft, Russian Embassy (monumental wedding cake design)
* Pariser Platz (Monumental square close to Brandenburg Gate / embassies)
* Brandenburg Gate / Brandenburgor Tor (last city gate, built in 1791)
* Reichstag (German Parliament)
* Reichstag Dome (free entry / long queues shorter in late pm) Leave a Comment
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Unter den Linden is Berlin's loveliest boulevard and the heart of historical Berlin (Mitte). It extends from Pariser Platz, at the Brandenburg Gate, to the Schlossbrucke bridge, a distance of about 1.5km.
It is named for the linden or lime trees which line the grassed pedestrian area between the two carriageways. During the last days of World War II most of the trees were destroyed or cut down for firewood. The trees were replanted in the 1950s and have flourished ever since.
There are many interesting buildings along Unter den Linden (their street number is in brackets below). You can visit the Deutsches Historisches Museum, which is Germany's largest history museum. It is housed in the Zeughaus (2), which was the royal arsenal building built in 1706.
Also you can see the Russian Embassy (63-65), built in typical Stalin-style; the Deutsche Guggenheim (13-15) with its contemporary art exhibitions; the Alte Staatsbibliothek - Old National Library (8), which was founded in 1661; and the Humboldt Universitat (6), Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810. Oh, and the statue of Frederick the Great in the middle of the road, facing west.
Why not take a walk along the boulevard and admire some of the buildings, or on a fine day you can have a break on one of the seats under the pretty linden trees. Leave a Comment
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Take a stroll down Unter den Linden and enjoy the streetscape. It is full of classic buildings, statues, history, culture and people. Deutsches Historisches Museum has web cams looking down Unter den Linden to Brandenburger Tor and back to Berliner Dom. I enjoy regularly looking at this web cam site as it brings back so many great memories. The web-cams are updated every 30 seconds 24 hours a day. The museum itself, as you can probably guess from it's name, has a focus on German history and is open daily, except Wednesday, from 10am. to 6pm with free entrance. This photo was taken April 12, 2005 and shows a large roadworks project in action, other photos attached show the completed works and seasonal impacts. The first building on the right is the courtyard entrance to Humboldt University. The statue in the middle of the street is the famous equestrian statue of Frederick the Great. The Brandenburg Gate can be seen in the distance and is an excellant start, finish or return point fror a walk down the street. The trees you see dividing the roads are lime trees from which the name of the street was derived, "under the lime trees". Leave a Comment
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Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841) designed the "Neue Wache" in the early 19th century. It is generally considered to be an outstanding example of neo-classical architecture.
For its first century, the Neue Wache served as a guardhouse for Prussian troops. In the 1920s, it became a Memorial to soldiers killed in World War I. During the DDR era, it was rededicated as a "Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism." Now, it has once again been re-dedicated as a Memorial to all the victims of war and dictatorship worldwide. Memory and memorials are always contextual and "political" in the broadest sense; sightseeing in Berlin makes this perfectly clear.
The atmosphere of the Neue Wache is austere and solemn. There is a circular opening in the roof of the building, underneath which are arrayed a variety of wreaths. There is a also a copy of a powerful 20th century sculpture, "Mother With Her Dead Son," by Kathe Kollwitz, a Berlin artist who lost her own son to World War I. This is a subdued, serious, and contemplative war memorial - and should be an early stop for all first-time visitors to Berlin. Leave a Comment Directions: S-Bahn: Unter den Linden, Bus 100
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The New Guard House or the Neue Wache is one of the most famous buildings by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, an architect who literally transformed nineteen-century Berlin with his Neoclassical buildings scaterred all over the center of town.
The Neue Wache stands at the eastern end of Unter den Linden and when it was built in 1818 it was to serve as the guardhouse for the royal guards. In 1930 it saw its first transformation into the memorial center dedicated to the soldiers who died in World War I. Then in 1957 it was converted by the GDR government into a Memorial to the victims of Fascism and Militarism. A grotesque change of guards happenned here every day.
After 1989 the Neue Wache serves as the National Memorial to the Victims of War and Tyranny. Schinkel's Neoclassical facade resembles to the Greek temple but it is inside chamber that is the most interesting with ray of sun playing on bare walls surrounding Pieta statue by Kathe Kollwitz. Leave a Comment Directions: S-Bahn: Unter den Linden, Bus 100
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This Berlin's most elegant boulevard flanked by linden trees starts at the Brandenburg Gate and stretches over the Schloss Bridge to the Schloss Platz. It is one of grand urban gestures done by Friedrich Wilhelm and was the main axis of the Prussian metropolis.
In the 1930s Nazis replaced linden trees with flagposts, and the boulevard was replanted again after the war but with the establishment of the wall on its western edge it lost most of its meaning. On the other hand, we can thank East Germans that this wasn't turned into another pedestrian street with Kaufhof and Woolworth department stores like so many others in other (West) German cities that were subject to heavy bombings. Slowly but carefully GDR has put a lot of efforts to reconstruct most of the historic buildings from the war debris and today big works (still going on here) are in fact only make up efforts to make this grand boulevard shine in all its monumental glory.
The eastern part of the Unter den Linden is the most interesting with some of Berlin's best public buildings built around former Forum Fridericianum which stood approximately where the State Opera stands today. Leave a Comment Directions: S-Bahn: Unter den Linden, Bus 100
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The area around eastern end of Unter den Linden is filled not only with nice Neoclassical buildings and statues but also with historic stories that took place here. It takes a while to grasp all the information you can read in your guidebooks and it takes a while to stop at least in front of the most important places and think in silence about the things that took place here.
Directly opposite the University buildings is Bebelplatz which was the scene of the notorious Buchverbrennung - the burning of books by Nazis that happenned in 1933. Thousands of books that conflicted with the Nazi ideology went up in smoke in May 10th. Erich Maria Remarque, Thomas Mann and Ernest Hemingway were among the authors whose books were destroyed.
Berlin knows how to make memorials and the one on Bebelplatz is among the strongest ones. It features a simple glass plate on the square floor where you can take a look into an underground chamber called "The Empty Library" - a room with walls made of empty bookshelves. Luckily, shelves of the University Library accross the street aren't as empty. Leave a Comment Directions: S-Bahn: Unter den Linden, Bus 100
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Bebelplatz is a special square to hold on your visit for half an hour
Main attractions are :
The Humboldt-University
The Hedwigs Kathedrale
The staple of books
In 1933, Nazi Minister for Propaganda Joseph Goebbels began to synchronize culture, by which the arts were brought in line with Nazi goals. The government purged cultural organizations of Jews and others alleged to be politically or artistically suspect. The works of leading German writers such as Bertold Brecht, Thomas Mann Lion Feuchtwanger and Alfred Kerr were thrown in to flames in a book burning ceremony in Berlin.
The writer Heinrich Heine wrote long before this ceremony (see plate):
“Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen“"Where they burn books, they will end in burning human beings." Leave a Comment Directions: S-Bahn: Unter den Linden, Bus 100
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This is not a typical photo of Unter den Linden, as this tree-lined boulevard is Berlin’s central avenue. It leads from Pariser Platz on the east side of Brandenburger Tor to the (no more existing) Castle on Museumsinsel, passing the greatest surviving monuments of the former Prussian capital, and then further to Alexanderplatz.
This photo, taken through a passage of Brandenburger Tor, shows the ferocious building spree that takes place in this area, with the TV Tower on Alexanderplatz in the background.
Works on the boulevard already started about 1650, ordered by Elector (Kurfürst) Friedrich Wilhelm. The name means nothing more than “Under the Linden trees” – guess why… The boulevard followed a former riding path, commissioned by Elector Johann Georg in 1573, and connecting the Castle with Tiergarten which starts on the west side of Brandenburger Tor.
On this side of the Gate the avenue continues as Straße des 17. Juni (Street of 17 June), passing the Victory Column (Siegessäule).
If you are interested in more detailed descriptions of all the wonderful buildings and attractions on the boulevard Unter den Linden have a look at the Things to Do Tips of VT member mgmarcus. He has compiled them with love for detail on his Berlin page, including Deutsches Historisches Museum, Alte Kommandantur, Kronprinzenpalais, Zeughaus and Neue Wache. Directions: U-Bahn U 55, station Brandenburger Tor, U 2 Mohrenstraße, U 6 Franzosenstraße; U 8 and U 2 Alexanderplatz S-Bahn Unter den Linden and Alexanderplatz
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Next to the Humboldt University there is another grandiose building dating from late 19th century. It houses state library in Berlin, once the main Prussian and later main GDR library today it is one of two main libraries in Berlin (yes, that's possible in a city that is still recovering from recent division).
If you peek inside you'll find "Ivy League" courtyard with a fountain in the middle. Many students from the nearby University come here to study and there is also a small cafe here where you can enjoy your coffee in this calm oasis away from the Unter den Linden. Leave a Comment
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