Landmarks & City

The Brandenburg Gate, the TV Tower, the Reichstag dome, the U-Bahn, the parks and the everyday icons of the Berlin cityscape.

Part of Berlin

18 moments in this segment.

1. 1713 — Charlottenburg Palace. The largest surviving royal palace in Berlin, the baroque-rococo summer home of the Prussian queens.
2. 1791 — The Brandenburg Gate. The neoclassical gate of 1791 crowned by the Quadriga — symbol of division, then of unity, then of Berlin itself.
3. 1800 — Gendarmenmarkt. Berlin's most beautiful square — the twin German and French cathedrals flanking Schinkel's Konzerthaus.
4. 1840 — The Tiergarten. The great central park, once a royal hunting ground, with the Victory Column rising from its trees.
5. 1850 — The Spree. The river that made Berlin — its bridges, its banks, and the beaches and bars that line it in summer.
6. 1869 — The Rotes Rathaus. The "Red City Hall" of red brick — seat of Berlin's government since 1869.
7. 1873-09-02 — The Victory Column. The golden Siegessäule in the Tiergarten — "Goldelse", a Berlin icon (and the angel's perch in Wings of Desire).
8. 1896 — The Oberbaum Bridge. The twin-towered brick bridge over the Spree, once a border crossing, now linking Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain.
9. 1900 — The Grunewald. The vast forest on the city's western flank — a Berliner's lungs, lakes and weekend wilderness.
10. 1902 — The U-Bahn. Berlin's underground railway since 1902 — its yellow trains, tiled stations and the ghost stations of the divided years.
11. 1905 — Berlin Cathedral. The great domed Protestant cathedral on Museum Island, the Hohenzollern court church.
12. 1906 — The Hackesche Höfe. The interlinked Art Nouveau courtyards of Mitte — cafés, theatres and the revived life of old Berlin.
13. 1907 — The Wannsee. The great lake on Berlin's edge and Europe's largest inland lido — the city's summer escape since 1907.
14. 1920 — The Kurfürstendamm. West Berlin's great shopping boulevard — the glittering capitalist showcase of the divided years.
15. 1941 — Tempelhof. The vast Nazi-era airport of the airlift, now a beloved public park — Berliners cycling down the old runways.
16. 1969 — Alexanderplatz. The vast East Berlin square of the World Clock and the TV Tower — Döblin's novel, the city's beating socialist heart.
17. 1969 — The Fernsehturm. The 368-metre TV tower at Alexanderplatz (1969) — the GDR's pride, its sphere catching the sun as the "Pope's revenge".
18. 1998 — Potsdamer Platz. The dead no-man's-land of the Wall years, reborn in the 1990s as a glass-towered new downtown.