Instant Cities: Berlin

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Places and landmarks in Berlin

13 landmarks of Berlin, and the streets, squares and waterways around them, each with its story and where to find it.

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Photo: Jürgen Matern, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Landmarks

Brandenburg GateThe neoclassical gate of 1791 crowned by the Quadriga, symbol of a divided and reunited Germany. ReichstagThe parliament building of 1894, crowned since 1999 by a glass dome you can walk up. Unter den LindenThe boulevard under the lime trees, from the Brandenburg Gate to Museum Island. GendarmenmarktThe French and the German church facing each other across the square, with the concert hall between. Holocaust MemorialThe Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe: 2,711 concrete slabs on a sloping field. BebelplatzThe square where the Nazis burned books in 1933, now marked by a library of empty shelves under the ground. Museum IslandFive great museums on an island in the Spree, from the Pergamon Altar to Nefertiti. Berlin CathedralThe great domed Protestant cathedral on Museum Island, finished in 1905. TV TowerEast Berlin’s 368-metre TV tower of 1969, with a ball that throws a cross of light in the sun.

Also part of Berlin

Berlin WallThe wall that split the city from 1961 to 1989, its line now marked by a double row of cobbles. AmpelmännchenThe little man with a hat on East Berlin’s traffic lights, saved after reunification. TrabantThe little East German car with a plastic body, which chugged across the open border in 1989. CurrywurstA sliced pork sausage in curried ketchup, invented in Berlin in 1949.

Streets, squares and waterways

The places that hold the centre of Berlin together. Point at one to find it on the map.

Platz der Republik1 Pariser Platz2 Ebertstraße3 Unter den Linden4 Friedrichstraße5 Wilhelmstraße6 Gendarmenmarkt7 Bebelplatz8 Lustgarten9 Museum Island10 Schlossplatz11 The Spree12 Nikolaiviertel13 Karl-Liebknecht-Straße14
The centre of Berlin, drawn from the same OpenStreetMap data as the game. The whole city on OpenStreetMap
  1. 1
    Platz der Republik square

    The great lawn in front of the Reichstag, the seat of the Bundestag, under Norman Foster’s glass dome.

  2. 2
    Pariser Platz square

    The square inside the Brandenburg Gate, with the French and American embassies and the Hotel Adlon. It takes its name from the Allies’ capture of Paris in 1814.

  3. 3
    Ebertstraße street

    The street along the edge of the Tiergarten from the Reichstag past the Brandenburg Gate to Potsdamer Platz. The Wall ran along it, and the Holocaust Memorial lies beside it.

  4. 4
    Unter den Linden street

    The boulevard from the Brandenburg Gate to Museum Island, where the Great Elector had lime trees planted in 1647, lined with the State Opera, the Humboldt University and the old Arsenal.

  5. 5
    Friedrichstraße street

    The long shopping street of the Baroque Friedrichstadt, which crosses Unter den Linden. Further south it passed through the Wall at Checkpoint Charlie.

  6. 6
    Wilhelmstraße street

    For a century the street of the Prussian and German government, where Bismarck and later Hitler had their chancelleries. The British Embassy stands on it today.

  7. 7
    Gendarmenmarkt square

    Often called Berlin’s finest square, with the Konzerthaus between the twin French and German Churches. It takes its name from a cavalry regiment, the Gens d’armes, that kept its stables here.

  8. 8
    Bebelplatz square

    Frederick the Great’s square between the State Opera, St Hedwig’s Cathedral and the old royal library. A glass plate in the paving looks down on empty shelves, in memory of the Nazi book burning of 1933.

  9. 9
    Lustgarten park

    The lawn between the Altes Museum, the cathedral and the palace, once the pleasure garden of the electors.

  10. 10
    Museum Island Museumsinsel quarter

    The north end of the island in the Spree, where Prussia built five museums between 1830 and 1930, from the Altes Museum to the Pergamon.

  11. 11
    Schlossplatz Schloßplatz square

    The square in front of the Hohenzollerns’ palace, which the East German government blew up in 1950. Germany rebuilt its façades for the Humboldt Forum, which opened in 2021.

  12. 12
    The Spree Spree waterway

    Berlin’s river, which splits around the island that holds Museum Island and old Cölln. Tour boats run along it past the cathedral and the Reichstag.

  13. 13
    Nikolaiviertel quarter

    The quarter around the Nikolaikirche, Berlin’s oldest church, where the city began. East Germany rebuilt it for the city’s 750th anniversary in 1987, partly with copies of lost houses.

  14. 14
    Karl-Liebknecht-Straße street

    The wide East German avenue from the cathedral towards Alexanderplatz, past the medieval Marienkirche and the TV Tower.

  15. 15
    Alexanderplatz square

    The big square of East Berlin, named after the visit of Tsar Alexander I in 1805, with the World Clock and the TV Tower beside it.

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