fubar57
General
Great tour Grant
Nuuumannn's European Tour of 2019
- Thread starter nuuumannn
- Start date
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Airframes
Benevolens Magister
It certainly is !
Crimea_River
Marshal
The accompanying narrative so informative and well-researched. Excellent viewing and reading!
Great shots Grant!
- Thread starter
- #85
Thanks again, guys. Busy at home with kiddies and stuff, although I'd much rather be reliving my trip with you guys, to be frank!
So, we are now in front of the Reichstag, looking over the Platz Der Republik, what was originally called the Konigsplatz (King's Place). In April 1945, when the Soviets made their final assault on the Reichstag, they came from the left of this picture because right in front was a trench that had been dug for the U-bahn that was to connect the proposed Volkshalle to the network. It was initially assumed that it was a defensive trench, having filled with water, but its purpose was more prosaic. This was the original location of the Siegessaule and the Bismarck and Moltkedenkmalen, which sat among a sculpted garden and was intersected by a north-south avenue named the Siegesallee, or Victory Alley, which was lined by 32 marble statues of Prussian heroes. Originally created in 1735, the Konigsplatz saw the Siegessaule installed first, in 1873, with a palace belonging to a Polish count occupying where the Reichstag now stands. Work was begun on the building in 1884, taking ten years to build. The square gained the name Platz Der Republik during the Weimar Republic days after the end of the Great War, although the Nazis named it as it previously had been, owing to their disdain for the former regime.
Berlin Tour 23
How the Konigsplatz looked on completion of the Reichstag. Note that the Siegesaulle is modelled at its original height before Speer insisted it become larger after it was moved, with three fluted columns above the granite rotunda. The Bismarckdenkmal can be seen adjacent to the Reichstag-Gebaude (Hall of the Imperial Diet), as the building was officially known, with the Moltkedenkmal located this side of the Siegesaulle, out of the picture.
Berlin Tour 24
Back to April 1945 and it wasn't until 6pm on 30 April that the final assault on the Reichstag by the Soviets began. This was after the Krolloper building, across the Konigsplatz from the Reichstag had been assaulted, which led to high losses among the Russians. After dark, with the support of Soviet self-propelled artillery, while still under fire from the Zoo bunker's guns 2 kilometres away, Soviet troops of the 150th Division breached the outer doors, firing a mortar horizontally at them and busting their way in. Their entry into the building was met with fierce resistance and hand to hand combat broke out with the SS troops determined to hold out. Whilst the fighting indoors continued, the 171st Division secured the exterior and the trappings highlighting the Soviet victory, the ceremonial banners prepared especially for the occasion were brought into the building. With 70 minutes to go before the deadline of the 1st of May arrived, the Red Banner was finally hoisted above the ramparts on the eastern side of the building. Some 2,200 Soviets and 2,500 German soldiers had lost their lives in the assault on Berlin's soul. Meanwhile, the battle for the rest of the city continued. Today, the Reichstag serves at the German parliament again, with reconstruction undertaken in the late 1990s. Although not visible in this picture, there are always queues of people, as it is open to the public, but a visit has to be booked in advance, otherwise, you are queueing for ages.
Berlin Tour 25
A monument to 96 parliamentary citizens of the Weimar Republic murdered by the Nazis, located outside the entry gates to the Reichstag. One of the many memorials to the scars in the tissue of this city's history left by the Nazis, and we'll be visiting some of them along the way.
Berlin Tour 26
This is the first Soviet war memorial erected in Berlin after the war's end. There is another, which we will see later on in the tour, but this one holds a very prominent position in the Tiergarten on Strasse des 17 Juni, or Charlottenburger Chausee as it was then. Built in 1945 on the site of the graves of those 2,200 Soviet soldiers who lost their lives capturing the Reichstag, the Soviets worked day and night to get it completed by 11 November as a permanent reminder of their sacrifice. It was made, in a typical act of Soviet retribution, from stone dragged from the ruins of Hitler's Reichs Chancellery on Voss Strasse and by placing it astride the former Siegessallee within sight of the Reichstag, although the parliament building is today obscured from view of the monument by the regenerating foliage that was so noticeably absent in 1945. The guns are ML-20 152mm howitzers. American journalist William Shirer, who had covered the rise of the Nazis from Berlin until 1940, returned in 1945 and was present at the unveilling of the memorial, wrote that when, 'the Russians unveiled the mammoth monument, you could almost hear Hitler's Bolshevik-hating bones rattling in their grave."
Berlin Tour 27
Where would the Soviet Army be without the T-34? It's only natural that this tangible symbol of their victory, placed on so many memorial plinths from Berlin east to Moscow, should be present at the place of their objective during their hardest struggle. There are two of these flanking the memorial at street level.
Berlin Tour 28
The Soviet War Memorial from the road, with the T-34s just outside the picture. This is a functioning memorial today, where commemorations are still held in honour of the fallen. During the Cold War, the memorial was in the British sector and after its construction was placed under 24 hour guard by Soviet soldiers. Intriguingly, this continued, with permission of the Allied Control Commission until 1991, owing to the fact that it is the site of war graves. This view is as close as the public could get to the monument, the armed Soviet guards ensuring that there was no access to it, until the fall of the Soviet Union, when it became just another monument ot the city's colourful past that the public and tourists could marvel at.
Berlin Tour 29
The Strasse Des 17 Juni looking west toward the Siegesaulle, exactly one Roman Mile from this spot, as Albert Speer had intended. Lining this boulevard following its reconstruction were street lamps designed by Speer, which have all been removed, although there are some surviving in remote locations. The best place to see the Speer lamps is on the Frankfurter Allee, which we'll visit on another day. It's peculiar that the East German communists chose these reminders of Speer's influence on the city to line their most prominent avenue.
Berlin Tour 30
Go East, Young Man... The Brandenburg Gate at the entrance to Pariser Platz and Unter Den Linden. Three things of immediate note in this picture, the tour busses, roving round Berlin in their hundreds at this time of year, the ever present TV Tower and the small statue in the centre of the island. This is called Der Rufer, the Caller or the Crier and is deliberatly placed facing what used to be East Berlin. Designed by Gerhard Marcks and initially cast in 1966, a copy was erected here a few months before the fall of the Wall in 1989. The statue is intended as a call for peace, but Marcks has also erected versions of Der Rufer in a few other cities round the world; that erected in Perth, Western Australia comemmorates victims of torture.
Berlin Tour 31
The Brandenburg Gate, or Brandenburger Tor, that most well known and prominent of Berlin's public monuments was originally constructed between 1788 and 1791. back in the 17th Century, Berlin was a walled city of little note, with 18 roads that led to different locations within the principalities that were to eventually make up the Greater German Reich. At each of those roads from the city were gates and this one led to the principality of Brandenburg, hence its name. Atop the gate can be seen the Quadriga, which the French claim was theirs, although it wasn't, as we'll see in the next instalment of images. This is a reproduction since the original was mangled in the battle for the city in 1945. Initially as built, only the Royal Family could pass through the centre pillars, but now they let any old tourist from far flung parts of the world through them. Following WW2, the gate had suffered considerable damage and in a bizarre act of reconciliation, both the communist East Berlin and West Berlin governments agreed to jointly fund its reconstruction. If we were standing here from 1961, we would be facing the Wall as it ran directly in front of the gate. This meant that from the eastern side, the public were not allowed near it. From this side however, the wall became a target for grafitti and youngsters hurling things over it, to the consternation of the East German border guards!
Berlin Tour 32
More from Berlin in the following days, when we head east and go to the heart of the Third Reich.
So, we are now in front of the Reichstag, looking over the Platz Der Republik, what was originally called the Konigsplatz (King's Place). In April 1945, when the Soviets made their final assault on the Reichstag, they came from the left of this picture because right in front was a trench that had been dug for the U-bahn that was to connect the proposed Volkshalle to the network. It was initially assumed that it was a defensive trench, having filled with water, but its purpose was more prosaic. This was the original location of the Siegessaule and the Bismarck and Moltkedenkmalen, which sat among a sculpted garden and was intersected by a north-south avenue named the Siegesallee, or Victory Alley, which was lined by 32 marble statues of Prussian heroes. Originally created in 1735, the Konigsplatz saw the Siegessaule installed first, in 1873, with a palace belonging to a Polish count occupying where the Reichstag now stands. Work was begun on the building in 1884, taking ten years to build. The square gained the name Platz Der Republik during the Weimar Republic days after the end of the Great War, although the Nazis named it as it previously had been, owing to their disdain for the former regime.
How the Konigsplatz looked on completion of the Reichstag. Note that the Siegesaulle is modelled at its original height before Speer insisted it become larger after it was moved, with three fluted columns above the granite rotunda. The Bismarckdenkmal can be seen adjacent to the Reichstag-Gebaude (Hall of the Imperial Diet), as the building was officially known, with the Moltkedenkmal located this side of the Siegesaulle, out of the picture.
Back to April 1945 and it wasn't until 6pm on 30 April that the final assault on the Reichstag by the Soviets began. This was after the Krolloper building, across the Konigsplatz from the Reichstag had been assaulted, which led to high losses among the Russians. After dark, with the support of Soviet self-propelled artillery, while still under fire from the Zoo bunker's guns 2 kilometres away, Soviet troops of the 150th Division breached the outer doors, firing a mortar horizontally at them and busting their way in. Their entry into the building was met with fierce resistance and hand to hand combat broke out with the SS troops determined to hold out. Whilst the fighting indoors continued, the 171st Division secured the exterior and the trappings highlighting the Soviet victory, the ceremonial banners prepared especially for the occasion were brought into the building. With 70 minutes to go before the deadline of the 1st of May arrived, the Red Banner was finally hoisted above the ramparts on the eastern side of the building. Some 2,200 Soviets and 2,500 German soldiers had lost their lives in the assault on Berlin's soul. Meanwhile, the battle for the rest of the city continued. Today, the Reichstag serves at the German parliament again, with reconstruction undertaken in the late 1990s. Although not visible in this picture, there are always queues of people, as it is open to the public, but a visit has to be booked in advance, otherwise, you are queueing for ages.
A monument to 96 parliamentary citizens of the Weimar Republic murdered by the Nazis, located outside the entry gates to the Reichstag. One of the many memorials to the scars in the tissue of this city's history left by the Nazis, and we'll be visiting some of them along the way.
This is the first Soviet war memorial erected in Berlin after the war's end. There is another, which we will see later on in the tour, but this one holds a very prominent position in the Tiergarten on Strasse des 17 Juni, or Charlottenburger Chausee as it was then. Built in 1945 on the site of the graves of those 2,200 Soviet soldiers who lost their lives capturing the Reichstag, the Soviets worked day and night to get it completed by 11 November as a permanent reminder of their sacrifice. It was made, in a typical act of Soviet retribution, from stone dragged from the ruins of Hitler's Reichs Chancellery on Voss Strasse and by placing it astride the former Siegessallee within sight of the Reichstag, although the parliament building is today obscured from view of the monument by the regenerating foliage that was so noticeably absent in 1945. The guns are ML-20 152mm howitzers. American journalist William Shirer, who had covered the rise of the Nazis from Berlin until 1940, returned in 1945 and was present at the unveilling of the memorial, wrote that when, 'the Russians unveiled the mammoth monument, you could almost hear Hitler's Bolshevik-hating bones rattling in their grave."
Where would the Soviet Army be without the T-34? It's only natural that this tangible symbol of their victory, placed on so many memorial plinths from Berlin east to Moscow, should be present at the place of their objective during their hardest struggle. There are two of these flanking the memorial at street level.
The Soviet War Memorial from the road, with the T-34s just outside the picture. This is a functioning memorial today, where commemorations are still held in honour of the fallen. During the Cold War, the memorial was in the British sector and after its construction was placed under 24 hour guard by Soviet soldiers. Intriguingly, this continued, with permission of the Allied Control Commission until 1991, owing to the fact that it is the site of war graves. This view is as close as the public could get to the monument, the armed Soviet guards ensuring that there was no access to it, until the fall of the Soviet Union, when it became just another monument ot the city's colourful past that the public and tourists could marvel at.
The Strasse Des 17 Juni looking west toward the Siegesaulle, exactly one Roman Mile from this spot, as Albert Speer had intended. Lining this boulevard following its reconstruction were street lamps designed by Speer, which have all been removed, although there are some surviving in remote locations. The best place to see the Speer lamps is on the Frankfurter Allee, which we'll visit on another day. It's peculiar that the East German communists chose these reminders of Speer's influence on the city to line their most prominent avenue.
Go East, Young Man... The Brandenburg Gate at the entrance to Pariser Platz and Unter Den Linden. Three things of immediate note in this picture, the tour busses, roving round Berlin in their hundreds at this time of year, the ever present TV Tower and the small statue in the centre of the island. This is called Der Rufer, the Caller or the Crier and is deliberatly placed facing what used to be East Berlin. Designed by Gerhard Marcks and initially cast in 1966, a copy was erected here a few months before the fall of the Wall in 1989. The statue is intended as a call for peace, but Marcks has also erected versions of Der Rufer in a few other cities round the world; that erected in Perth, Western Australia comemmorates victims of torture.
The Brandenburg Gate, or Brandenburger Tor, that most well known and prominent of Berlin's public monuments was originally constructed between 1788 and 1791. back in the 17th Century, Berlin was a walled city of little note, with 18 roads that led to different locations within the principalities that were to eventually make up the Greater German Reich. At each of those roads from the city were gates and this one led to the principality of Brandenburg, hence its name. Atop the gate can be seen the Quadriga, which the French claim was theirs, although it wasn't, as we'll see in the next instalment of images. This is a reproduction since the original was mangled in the battle for the city in 1945. Initially as built, only the Royal Family could pass through the centre pillars, but now they let any old tourist from far flung parts of the world through them. Following WW2, the gate had suffered considerable damage and in a bizarre act of reconciliation, both the communist East Berlin and West Berlin governments agreed to jointly fund its reconstruction. If we were standing here from 1961, we would be facing the Wall as it ran directly in front of the gate. This meant that from the eastern side, the public were not allowed near it. From this side however, the wall became a target for grafitti and youngsters hurling things over it, to the consternation of the East German border guards!
More from Berlin in the following days, when we head east and go to the heart of the Third Reich.
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love it !
Lovely shots Grant!
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Great stuff Grant, looking forward to more.
Crimea_River
Marshal
Excellent. When was there 2 years ago the Brandenburg Gate was inaccessible having been surrounded by stages and viewing screens for what was hoped to be Germany's long run in the World Cup.
- Thread starter
- #91
This is the Brandenburg Gate from the east looking west. How do we know? The Quadriga faces east. A quadriga, for those a little unsure is a four horse chariot and this one, the original, that is, was built for the Brandenburg Gate in 1873, the same year as the Siegessaule was installed in the Konigsplatz. For some bizarre reason, this piece of neo-classical sculpture has been the subject of international jealousy. Seized by Napoleon on his occupation of the city in 1806, the Quadriga went back to Paris - yes, the French stole it first, but then Blucher rightfully returned it to Germany, although under similar circumstances, in 1814 on his invasion of Paris. Returned to its rightful place, it suffered considerable damage during the Soviet invasion of Berlin, and again, subsequently, the French had their eyes on it as reparatrions, but it was so mangled, and it was in the Soviet sector, that it stayed put. The original was eventually scrapped and one of the horses' heads survives in one of the many museums on Museum Insel on the other side of the Unter Den Linden. During the joint restoration of the Brandenburg Gate, a faithful replica was built. Another quirk about the thing is that the East Germans found the Iron Cross within the olive wreath offensive and a reminder of Prussian militarism, so had it removed. The cross was reinstated on German reunification. Sensitive, those East Germans.
Berlin Tour 33
Pariser Platz and the beginning of the Unter Den Linden, with the Brandenburg Gate behind us. This is the tourist hub of the city and if you want East German souvenirs, hawkers can be found selling tchapkas, DDR belt buckles and other ephemera they've found hidden away in their parents' tiny Soviet style block flats. Its not quite as bad as around Moscow university though, when on one visit a rather keen hawker tried to sell me an AK-47! Named as such because of the installation of linden trees in the 16th Century, the boulevard is the cultural centre of the city and flanking it are all manner of museums, opera houses and campusses of the Humboldt University. During Nazi time, of course, the avenue was seen as an excuse to dust off those bright red blutfahnen (Blood Banner) and drape them tastelessly along the roadside in sequence, and then hold a parade. There's that Fernsehturm orb again, hovering over the city like the Death Star from Star Wars.
Berlin Tour 34
Originally simply known as Die Viereck, The Square until redesigned in the early 1790s, Pariser Platz flanks the Brandenburg Gate and was once an important international centre of the city, with the United States and French Embassies on either side of the customs gate, as a mini diplomatic quarter, but more prestigious owing to its prominent location adjacent the city's cultural hub. Foreign diplomats stayed at the luxurious Adlon Hotel, and could walk to the administrative boulevard that is Wilhelmstrasse, which branches off from the southern corner of the platz, and wealthy politicians had their private residences in flats clustered around the square. In the aftermath of WW2, the buildings around the platz, which also held the Ministry for Armaments, Albert Speer's domain in the latter half of the Nazi regime, on the site of the white building to the right of the Brandenburg Gate, were gutted and eventually mown down, not to be replaced by the Soviets, then the East Germans. Then, from August 1961 with the construction of the Wall, this entire area became No Man's Land, 'The Death Strip" as the empty stretches of land flanking the Wall became known. It wasn't until reunification that Pariser Platz was rebuilt to the fine state its in, and occupied by tourists and hawkers as it is today.
Berlin Tour 35
This rather striking foyer is, paradoxically, the entrance to the DZ Bank building, or Deutsches Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank at Pariser Platz Nr 3. We had our backs to it when photographing the Pariser Platz in the last shot. It was crafted by architect Frank Gehry and has become something of a tourist attraction, as the officious guards within the bank have gotten used to tourists peaking their heads in the bulding and whipping out their cameras for a glimpse at this feature. During Nazi times, this site was the Buildings Ministry, where Speer had his headquarters and private apartment while redesigning Berlin in his and the Fuhrer's own image. It is rumoured that Hitler, installed in the old Chancellery on Wilhelmstrasse, then the Reichs Chancellery on Voss Strasse, used to wander through the chancellery gardens to Speer's offices after a hard day's dictatoring and sneak in the back door to talk about whatever it was that a ruthless ruler and his architect friend used to chat about. I wonder what the National Architect and his budding co-conspirator, the Dictator would make of this particular flourish of creativity...
Berlin Tour 36
This is the famous Hotel Adlon on the corner of the Pariser Platz, or at least a re-creation on the spot of the original, as like everything else here, the building was destroyed in the wake of the Wall, and it was at one time one of Europe's finest establishments, rivalling the likes of the Waldorf-Astoria and the Savoy in luxury. Named after wine merchant and restauranteur Lorenz Adlon, who got permission from Kaiser Bill himself to build the hotel on this spot after convicing him that Berlin needed a Five Star establishment in the heart of the city, the Adlon opened its doors in 1907 and became a social hub for the elite on the prestigious Pariser Platz. There are many apocryphal stories surrounding the Adlon, one connected to our tour is that on the eve of the Munich Crisis in 1938, the Czech president Emile Hacha stayed in the Adlon after being ordered to Germany by Hitler. After arrival, he waited until 2am, when he was summonsed to the Chancellery, where Hitler was watching a movie called 'A Hopeless Case', ironically and quite possibly intentionally on the Fuhrer's part, reflecting the situation that Hacha found himself in, Hitler then began berating the man, threatening to bomb Prague into oblivion if he didn't cede the Sudetenland over to the Nazis. The poor fellow was then forced to attend Hitler's 50th birthday celebrations a year later in April 1939 and watch the parade along the East-West Axis from the podium only feet from the angry Fuhrer. Another of the 20th Century's freaks of nature, the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson infamously dangled his son from a balcony of the Adlon in 2002. I wouldn't trust him with my kid!
Berlin Tour 37
We are now strolling along Wilhelmstrasse opposite the British Embassy, although when it was originally built it didn't look like a giant slice of marble cake jutting out of its tin. Wilhelmstrasse, historically the main administrative boulevard that housed all those important ministries vital to the running of a country, today, there are only a few ministries here, but thoughtfully, to appease the insatiable desire of tourists to find out about the naughty Nazis, there are plaques that line the street telling what ministry used to be where, thus anchoring the city's turbulent past to the present. We'll be visiting some of these ministries, too.
Berlin Tour 38
We have circled the block and are now standing on the corner of Behringstrasse and Ebertstrasse opposite the Tiergarten, looking south towards Potsdamer Platz. During Nazi times, we would have been looking down Hermann-Goeringstrasse. Initially named Konigratzserstrasse in honour of the Prussian victory at Konigsratz in 1866, after the Great War the street was renamed Budapesterstrasse, as the former was considered too militaristic. It was renamed Ebertstrasse in 1930 after the death of the former President of the Weimar Republic, Frederich Ebert five years earlier, but had this name for a mere three years after being renamed after the Minister of the Interior of Prussia and Minister For Aviation of the new regime in power, who chose his personal residence in Berlin nearby. Closed for renovation from 1933, during its reconstruction, in a rush to have it reopened in time for the XIth Olympiade in 1936, safety measures were ignored and a tunnel under the street collapsed, burying 23 workmen, of which only four survived. A fire on the the street near Potsdamer Platz delayed precedings further and it wasn't until April 1939 that the street reopened as Hermann-Goeringstrasse. If we were standing here from 1961, we'd be in the Death Strip, with the Wall running alongside us.
Berlin Tour 39
This is the United States Embassy, which has occupied a spot on Pariser Platz next to the Brandenburg Gate since before World War Two and was one of the very few foreign embassies that was not located in the Diplomatic Quarter, where we were witnessing the advance of the Soviet army on the Reichstag earlier. The US Embassy is now located on the corner of Behrenstrasse and Ebertstrasse. Before World War Two, a prestigious apartment block sat on this spot, where the wealthy and politicians were fortunate enough to have resided. One of its most infamous occupants was the Nazi Reichs Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Josef Goebbels and his family on the top floor apartment, within walking distance of the Propaganda Ministry offices on Wilhelmstrasse. This was next to the aforementioned Buildings Ministry and apartments, one of which was occupied by Speer.
Berlin Tour 40
Directly opposite the US Embassy on Behrenstrasse is the Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas, or the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. Designed by Peter Eisenman, it consists of 2,711 concrete slabs or 'stelae' arranged in a grid pattern of 54 orientated north-south and 87 east-to-west, but slightly askew. It occupies the entire block along Ebertstrasse, from Behrenstrasse to Hannah-Arendtstrasse at its southern edge. Begun in April 2003 and opened to the public two years later, It gives an impression of rising anxiety as the blocks grow taller in height around the visitors strolling between them as they advance through it. Once inside, it's disorientating as one suffers from a deprivation of sense of direction because the rows are not straight; all visual cues of place are removed, except for directly upwards, where the vista of the sky is surrounded by the shards of concrete closing in on the viewer. Josef Goebbels, a strong supporter of the persecution of the Jews would be rolling in his grave...
Berlin Tour 41
Berlin Tour 42
Next, The Holy of Nazi Holies - the Fuhrerbunker and the Reichs Chancellery.
Pariser Platz and the beginning of the Unter Den Linden, with the Brandenburg Gate behind us. This is the tourist hub of the city and if you want East German souvenirs, hawkers can be found selling tchapkas, DDR belt buckles and other ephemera they've found hidden away in their parents' tiny Soviet style block flats. Its not quite as bad as around Moscow university though, when on one visit a rather keen hawker tried to sell me an AK-47! Named as such because of the installation of linden trees in the 16th Century, the boulevard is the cultural centre of the city and flanking it are all manner of museums, opera houses and campusses of the Humboldt University. During Nazi time, of course, the avenue was seen as an excuse to dust off those bright red blutfahnen (Blood Banner) and drape them tastelessly along the roadside in sequence, and then hold a parade. There's that Fernsehturm orb again, hovering over the city like the Death Star from Star Wars.
Originally simply known as Die Viereck, The Square until redesigned in the early 1790s, Pariser Platz flanks the Brandenburg Gate and was once an important international centre of the city, with the United States and French Embassies on either side of the customs gate, as a mini diplomatic quarter, but more prestigious owing to its prominent location adjacent the city's cultural hub. Foreign diplomats stayed at the luxurious Adlon Hotel, and could walk to the administrative boulevard that is Wilhelmstrasse, which branches off from the southern corner of the platz, and wealthy politicians had their private residences in flats clustered around the square. In the aftermath of WW2, the buildings around the platz, which also held the Ministry for Armaments, Albert Speer's domain in the latter half of the Nazi regime, on the site of the white building to the right of the Brandenburg Gate, were gutted and eventually mown down, not to be replaced by the Soviets, then the East Germans. Then, from August 1961 with the construction of the Wall, this entire area became No Man's Land, 'The Death Strip" as the empty stretches of land flanking the Wall became known. It wasn't until reunification that Pariser Platz was rebuilt to the fine state its in, and occupied by tourists and hawkers as it is today.
This rather striking foyer is, paradoxically, the entrance to the DZ Bank building, or Deutsches Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank at Pariser Platz Nr 3. We had our backs to it when photographing the Pariser Platz in the last shot. It was crafted by architect Frank Gehry and has become something of a tourist attraction, as the officious guards within the bank have gotten used to tourists peaking their heads in the bulding and whipping out their cameras for a glimpse at this feature. During Nazi times, this site was the Buildings Ministry, where Speer had his headquarters and private apartment while redesigning Berlin in his and the Fuhrer's own image. It is rumoured that Hitler, installed in the old Chancellery on Wilhelmstrasse, then the Reichs Chancellery on Voss Strasse, used to wander through the chancellery gardens to Speer's offices after a hard day's dictatoring and sneak in the back door to talk about whatever it was that a ruthless ruler and his architect friend used to chat about. I wonder what the National Architect and his budding co-conspirator, the Dictator would make of this particular flourish of creativity...
This is the famous Hotel Adlon on the corner of the Pariser Platz, or at least a re-creation on the spot of the original, as like everything else here, the building was destroyed in the wake of the Wall, and it was at one time one of Europe's finest establishments, rivalling the likes of the Waldorf-Astoria and the Savoy in luxury. Named after wine merchant and restauranteur Lorenz Adlon, who got permission from Kaiser Bill himself to build the hotel on this spot after convicing him that Berlin needed a Five Star establishment in the heart of the city, the Adlon opened its doors in 1907 and became a social hub for the elite on the prestigious Pariser Platz. There are many apocryphal stories surrounding the Adlon, one connected to our tour is that on the eve of the Munich Crisis in 1938, the Czech president Emile Hacha stayed in the Adlon after being ordered to Germany by Hitler. After arrival, he waited until 2am, when he was summonsed to the Chancellery, where Hitler was watching a movie called 'A Hopeless Case', ironically and quite possibly intentionally on the Fuhrer's part, reflecting the situation that Hacha found himself in, Hitler then began berating the man, threatening to bomb Prague into oblivion if he didn't cede the Sudetenland over to the Nazis. The poor fellow was then forced to attend Hitler's 50th birthday celebrations a year later in April 1939 and watch the parade along the East-West Axis from the podium only feet from the angry Fuhrer. Another of the 20th Century's freaks of nature, the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson infamously dangled his son from a balcony of the Adlon in 2002. I wouldn't trust him with my kid!
We are now strolling along Wilhelmstrasse opposite the British Embassy, although when it was originally built it didn't look like a giant slice of marble cake jutting out of its tin. Wilhelmstrasse, historically the main administrative boulevard that housed all those important ministries vital to the running of a country, today, there are only a few ministries here, but thoughtfully, to appease the insatiable desire of tourists to find out about the naughty Nazis, there are plaques that line the street telling what ministry used to be where, thus anchoring the city's turbulent past to the present. We'll be visiting some of these ministries, too.
We have circled the block and are now standing on the corner of Behringstrasse and Ebertstrasse opposite the Tiergarten, looking south towards Potsdamer Platz. During Nazi times, we would have been looking down Hermann-Goeringstrasse. Initially named Konigratzserstrasse in honour of the Prussian victory at Konigsratz in 1866, after the Great War the street was renamed Budapesterstrasse, as the former was considered too militaristic. It was renamed Ebertstrasse in 1930 after the death of the former President of the Weimar Republic, Frederich Ebert five years earlier, but had this name for a mere three years after being renamed after the Minister of the Interior of Prussia and Minister For Aviation of the new regime in power, who chose his personal residence in Berlin nearby. Closed for renovation from 1933, during its reconstruction, in a rush to have it reopened in time for the XIth Olympiade in 1936, safety measures were ignored and a tunnel under the street collapsed, burying 23 workmen, of which only four survived. A fire on the the street near Potsdamer Platz delayed precedings further and it wasn't until April 1939 that the street reopened as Hermann-Goeringstrasse. If we were standing here from 1961, we'd be in the Death Strip, with the Wall running alongside us.
This is the United States Embassy, which has occupied a spot on Pariser Platz next to the Brandenburg Gate since before World War Two and was one of the very few foreign embassies that was not located in the Diplomatic Quarter, where we were witnessing the advance of the Soviet army on the Reichstag earlier. The US Embassy is now located on the corner of Behrenstrasse and Ebertstrasse. Before World War Two, a prestigious apartment block sat on this spot, where the wealthy and politicians were fortunate enough to have resided. One of its most infamous occupants was the Nazi Reichs Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Josef Goebbels and his family on the top floor apartment, within walking distance of the Propaganda Ministry offices on Wilhelmstrasse. This was next to the aforementioned Buildings Ministry and apartments, one of which was occupied by Speer.
Directly opposite the US Embassy on Behrenstrasse is the Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas, or the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. Designed by Peter Eisenman, it consists of 2,711 concrete slabs or 'stelae' arranged in a grid pattern of 54 orientated north-south and 87 east-to-west, but slightly askew. It occupies the entire block along Ebertstrasse, from Behrenstrasse to Hannah-Arendtstrasse at its southern edge. Begun in April 2003 and opened to the public two years later, It gives an impression of rising anxiety as the blocks grow taller in height around the visitors strolling between them as they advance through it. Once inside, it's disorientating as one suffers from a deprivation of sense of direction because the rows are not straight; all visual cues of place are removed, except for directly upwards, where the vista of the sky is surrounded by the shards of concrete closing in on the viewer. Josef Goebbels, a strong supporter of the persecution of the Jews would be rolling in his grave...
Next, The Holy of Nazi Holies - the Fuhrerbunker and the Reichs Chancellery.
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Great shots Grant!
- Thread starter
- #93
Thanks for following along.
From Hanna-Arentstrasse, we walk south on to the narrow Gertrude-Colmarstrasse that runs parallel with Wilhelmstrasse, to this rather innocent looking car park. It is hard to find a more incongruous place for the most notorious megalomaniac in human history to have met his death, but 30 feet below this dusty space are the remains of Hitler's bunker. We are facing south-east, with Wilhelmstrasse running to our left. In 1936, on this spot was located a hall named the Diplomatensaal that was connected to the rear of the old Chancellery on Wilhelmstrasse and below it the first air raid shelter suitable for the Fuhrer was constructed. This was later to be called the Vorbunker once the Fuhrerbunker proper had been constructed in 1944. When Speer ordered the construction of the new Reichs Chancellery on Vossstrasse in 1938, a series of interconnecting tunnels between the new building, the Vorbunker and ministries on Wilhelmstrasse, such as the Propaganda Ministry and the Foreign Ministry were built, but these had proven to be vulnerable to air raid damage during Allied raids in 1943, so a new shelter was planned, to be bigger than the existing one, the Vorbunker and deeper, too. Located 30 feet below the ground, with a roof comprising a concrete slab 2.8 metres thick, the new Fuhrerbunker was not yet complete in its entirety by May 1945 when the Fuhrer took his own life on a sofa in his office in the bunker, next to his wife, Eva Braun, who did the same.
This page gives a very good description of the bunker's layout, accompanied by illustrations: Führerbunker - Wikipedia
Berlin Tour 43
From this view, we are looking north toward the location of the Fuhrerbunker and if we were here in 1945, this entire area was a building site while the finishing touches were being made to the complex. This was the Chancellery garden, with Vossstrasse and the Reichs Chancellery behind us and Wilhelmstrasse to our right. During DDR times, this entire area was empty, forming part of the Death Strip once the Wall was built. Following WW2's end, the Soviets, having taken everything from within the bunker complex, as well as from the chancellery and squirrelled it all back to Moscow, their attempts at destroying the steel reinforced concrete complex in 1947 was futile and the bunkers resisted destruction, so they flooded the entire complex and and covered the remains with dirt.
In the late 1980s however, the vacant land that bordered Wilhelmstrasse was earmarked for the building of swanky new apartment blocks, which the massive concrete fortfications below ground hindered the construction of, so further efforts were made to destroy the bunkers. Again, this proved too large an undertaking for the DDR workers and the apartments, seen in the background of the photo above went around the bunkers, but it also gave those who were curious and had a lot of nerve, since this was in the Death Zone next to the Wall, the opportunity to enter the bunker complex. Two years later, with German reunification and a total reconstruction of the entire block, work was undertaken to clear the place of unexploded ordnance, of which the city authorities are still discovering to this day - during my visit there was a UXB found at a building site not far from the city centre. This work, more extensive than that carried out by the East Germans, went further to destroy the bunker, owing to the desire to lower the ground level, after the Soviets had just piled dirt on top of the site. After an extensive survey of the bunker, which included brave souls entering the complex with cameras and clip-boards, the lot above floor level was demolished, with the concrete pad on which the bunker sat being buried again, this time, for the last time. Note the groups of people - these are official walking tours, congregating at the site and telling their version of the story. Incidentally, Hitler's lifeless body, his wife's and those of Goebbels and his wife and children were placed in a drainage trench and set alight, about where the clump of people to the left of the picture are.
Berlin Tour 44
In this image, we are looking south along Wilhelmstrasse at the apartment complex that was constructed in 1988 around the bunker. Prior to the site's destruction during the war, we would be looking at the old Chancellery at Wilhelmstrasse Nr 77. Formerly Palais Schulenburg, Bismarck, the new Chanceller of the Greater German Reich from 1870, had the building enlarged for its governmental purpose and after the Great War, a new administrative wing was added at Wilhelmstrasse Nr 73, stretching to the corner of Vossstrasse. It was in this section that Chancellor Paul von Hindenburg had his offices, which then became Hitler's on his 'election' to the role in 1933. It was in front of an office on the first floor, not actually Hitler's as is often misconstrued, owing to the fact that the rooms facing the street got too hot in the summer, that Speer, newly appointed to the role of Inspector of Buildings in 1937, added a balcony for the Fuhrer to greet crowds of adoring fans who gathered outside. Never liking the building, Hitler said of it that it was only 'fit for a soap company' and that from the outside it gave the impression of 'a warehouse or of the city fire brigade building', while the inside was akin to 'a TB sanatorium'.
Berlin Tour 45
We are now standing in a side street off Wilhelmstrasse on the opposite side of the road from where the old Reichs Chancellery stood. This is the Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, or the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. It occupies a building that the Nazis conveniently left behind for future use; the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, RMVP or Propagandaministerium, the Reichs Ministry for Enlightenment and Propaganda. Within these walls, propaganda minister Josef Goebbels masterminded the Third Reich's image through censorship and governmental control over news media, the arts, and public broadcasting to become one of the most effective marketing tools of all 20th century dictatorships. Central to this ministry's role was the rise of the cult of personality, which promoted Hitler as being little less than a demi-god, as most ruthless dictators favour, and for a time, quite shockingly in retrospect, it worked - that is, until the inevitable world war, when Goebbels' words began to ring rather hollow.
Berlin Tour 46
Back on Wilhelmstrasse, we have crossed the road and are standing in front of the block of flats we saw in the previous image looking down the street. This is the approximate location of the main public entrance to the new chancellery, the Reichskanzlei designed by Speer. Looking west, we would have been facing the courtyard that was known as the Ehrenhof, where vehicles would pull up to a tall double doorway guarded by two members of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler SS Division and flanked by four columns with a Reichsadler above it and sculptures by Arno Brecker of classical male figures depicting Die Partei, and Der Wehrmacht. And if this wasn't intimidating enough, through the 17 foot high doors, up some stairs into the entrance foyer, one walks into the 150 foot long Mosaiksaal, which was predominantly burgundy marble with a sky lit ceiling. After carefully navigating one's way across the slippery floor, the visitor reached the Rundersaal, which was a circular dome capped room that was designed to off-set a kink in the building, the entry door being slightly off-centre at its opposite end. This was the entrance into the main building proper, and the grand passage known as the Marmorgalerie - Speer's attempt to upstage the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. All of this grandiosity gave an impression of might and power. When Speer questioned the bare marble floors that Hitler insisted that he not cover with rugs, as was his original intent, Hitler quipped, 'diplomats should have practise moving on a slippery surface!' How funny that this expression of grandeur has been replaced by Chinese and Mexican eateries!
Berlin Tour 47
We are on the corner of Wilhelmstrasse and Vossstrasse looking west toward Potsdamer Platz, across at the location of the new Reichs Chancellery; the officious beating heart of German national socialism. At the end of January 1938, the busy Inspector of Buildings was given the instruction by the Fuhrer to construct a new Reichskanzlei to be completed in January 1939; a seemingly impossible task, one that Speer amazingly managed to pull off. Beginning with the air raid shelter work detailed in the previous posts, Speer later commented that he already knew how he wanted the building to look from the inside and worked his way around the existing space the length of Vossstrasse, which the building occupied. Work progressed around the clock, with some 4,500 people beavering away at it on two shifts. After the first ceremonial topping out on 1 August 1938, the building was completed 48 hours ahead of schedule on 7 January 1939. A truly extraordinary effort given the scale of what was achieved; a 1,400 foot long monstrosity that Hitler himself was extremely impressed with, giving great delight in showing people round his new realm.
Berlin Tour 48
We are standing on Vossstrasse's north side facing due north, approximately where the Marmorgalerie stood in the new Reichskanzlei. This enormous length of Nazi grandiosity was 146 metres long at a breadth of 12 metres, at a height of 45 metres. anchored by another slippery marble floor, the side facing the road comprised 19 high windows constructed of burgundy marble known as Deutschesrot. Opposite stood five evenly spaced similarly framed doors, the centre one of which, crowned with a heraldic shield with the initials 'AH' was the entrance to Hitler's office, protected by two more of his personal SS bodyguards. On the top floor above the grand structure was his private apartment. Speer said of the Marmorgalerie that, 'Hitler was particularly impressed by my gallery because it was twice as long as the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles'. The ignominy, that this most impressive architectural symbol of the Third Reich should end up as a non-descript car park.
Berlin Tour 49
From the Marmorgalerie we move through Hitler's office, into the walled Chancellery garden, through which the Fuhrer would sneak out at night to visit his friend, the architect. The underground bunkers were out of the picture to the right. Speer's description of Hitler's arbeitsplatz describes it better than I could:
"The Fuhrer's office looks out to the garden terrace through five French windows 6 metres high and two metres wide. Five similar bays to those formed by the French widdows are repeated on the opposite wall, constructed with fine inlaid panels. In the middle bay on this side is the entrance door leading in from the Marmorgalerie. The office, which is 27 metrers long and 14.5 metres wide, has walls consisting of a dark red marble from Austria known as Limbacher. With a height of 9.75 metres, the room has a panelled ceiling with beams of darker wood that is a splendid feat of joinery. On the floor made of Ruhpolding marble lies a single large carpet." "His study met with his undivided approval. He was particularly pleased by the inlay on his desk representing a sword half drawn from its sheath. 'Good, good. When the diplomats sitting in front of me at this desk see that, they'll learn to shiver and shake'".
This building is the Landesvertretung Saarland, the government department representing the state of Saarland in western Germany.
Berlin Tour 50
Doubling back eastwards along Vossstrasse, we have entered the underground at the Mohrenstrasse U-bahn station. Why? Because it is rumoured that the walls and columns lining the platform were constructed of burgundy marble scavenged from the ruins of the Reichskanzlei. It has been proposed, according to 'new research', that this might not be the case, but I question this, especially since the station was reconstructed by the Soviets/East Germans, who repurposed as much as they could possibly do so from the chancellery ruins - and where else in the rubble of post-war Berlin could you find rich burgundy marble, except the aforementioned spaces? Besides, the same material was used to clad the massive stone columns resembling draped Soviet Red Banners at the second Soviet war memorial at Treptower Park, in the south east of the city (which we'll visit over the coming days), which was done, of course in retribution, as was the first Soviet war memorial on the Tiergarten. I'm sticking with the Reichskanzlei marble theory, especially since Mohrenstrasse U-bahn is literally a marble stone's throw from Vossstrasse; not far at all to drag reconstituted building materiels.
Berlin Tour 51
Our next stop is south along Wilhelmstrasse to the corner of Leipzigerstrasse, and the Platz des Volksaufstandes von 1953. This a memorial corner inlaid into the existing building commemorating the 17 June uprising in East Berlin in 1953, the reason that Strasse des 17 Juni was named. Inside the columned walkway to the left of the picture is a mural by Max Lingner depicting Socialist style scenes of harmony and prosperity, which overlooks the memorial, almost as an affront to the regime responsible for the turmoil caused on that day. Not surprisingly, the East German government would never have allowed such a commemoration, let alone on the grounds of the very building in which the state of the DDR was pronounced on 7 October 1949. Today this building is known as Detlev-Rohwedder Haus, named after politician Detlev Karsten Rohwedder, a Social-Democratic Party member who was tragically assassinated in his home in Dusseldorf on 1 April 1991. It serves as the Bundesministerium der Finanzen, or Federal Ministry of Finance today, but its original purpose was abbreviated into three incongruous letters, of which we on this forum are very familiar. RLM.
Berlin Tour 52
Next, more Nazi naughtiness; the RLM building and the horrors of Prinz Albrechtstrasse.
From Hanna-Arentstrasse, we walk south on to the narrow Gertrude-Colmarstrasse that runs parallel with Wilhelmstrasse, to this rather innocent looking car park. It is hard to find a more incongruous place for the most notorious megalomaniac in human history to have met his death, but 30 feet below this dusty space are the remains of Hitler's bunker. We are facing south-east, with Wilhelmstrasse running to our left. In 1936, on this spot was located a hall named the Diplomatensaal that was connected to the rear of the old Chancellery on Wilhelmstrasse and below it the first air raid shelter suitable for the Fuhrer was constructed. This was later to be called the Vorbunker once the Fuhrerbunker proper had been constructed in 1944. When Speer ordered the construction of the new Reichs Chancellery on Vossstrasse in 1938, a series of interconnecting tunnels between the new building, the Vorbunker and ministries on Wilhelmstrasse, such as the Propaganda Ministry and the Foreign Ministry were built, but these had proven to be vulnerable to air raid damage during Allied raids in 1943, so a new shelter was planned, to be bigger than the existing one, the Vorbunker and deeper, too. Located 30 feet below the ground, with a roof comprising a concrete slab 2.8 metres thick, the new Fuhrerbunker was not yet complete in its entirety by May 1945 when the Fuhrer took his own life on a sofa in his office in the bunker, next to his wife, Eva Braun, who did the same.
This page gives a very good description of the bunker's layout, accompanied by illustrations: Führerbunker - Wikipedia
From this view, we are looking north toward the location of the Fuhrerbunker and if we were here in 1945, this entire area was a building site while the finishing touches were being made to the complex. This was the Chancellery garden, with Vossstrasse and the Reichs Chancellery behind us and Wilhelmstrasse to our right. During DDR times, this entire area was empty, forming part of the Death Strip once the Wall was built. Following WW2's end, the Soviets, having taken everything from within the bunker complex, as well as from the chancellery and squirrelled it all back to Moscow, their attempts at destroying the steel reinforced concrete complex in 1947 was futile and the bunkers resisted destruction, so they flooded the entire complex and and covered the remains with dirt.
In the late 1980s however, the vacant land that bordered Wilhelmstrasse was earmarked for the building of swanky new apartment blocks, which the massive concrete fortfications below ground hindered the construction of, so further efforts were made to destroy the bunkers. Again, this proved too large an undertaking for the DDR workers and the apartments, seen in the background of the photo above went around the bunkers, but it also gave those who were curious and had a lot of nerve, since this was in the Death Zone next to the Wall, the opportunity to enter the bunker complex. Two years later, with German reunification and a total reconstruction of the entire block, work was undertaken to clear the place of unexploded ordnance, of which the city authorities are still discovering to this day - during my visit there was a UXB found at a building site not far from the city centre. This work, more extensive than that carried out by the East Germans, went further to destroy the bunker, owing to the desire to lower the ground level, after the Soviets had just piled dirt on top of the site. After an extensive survey of the bunker, which included brave souls entering the complex with cameras and clip-boards, the lot above floor level was demolished, with the concrete pad on which the bunker sat being buried again, this time, for the last time. Note the groups of people - these are official walking tours, congregating at the site and telling their version of the story. Incidentally, Hitler's lifeless body, his wife's and those of Goebbels and his wife and children were placed in a drainage trench and set alight, about where the clump of people to the left of the picture are.
In this image, we are looking south along Wilhelmstrasse at the apartment complex that was constructed in 1988 around the bunker. Prior to the site's destruction during the war, we would be looking at the old Chancellery at Wilhelmstrasse Nr 77. Formerly Palais Schulenburg, Bismarck, the new Chanceller of the Greater German Reich from 1870, had the building enlarged for its governmental purpose and after the Great War, a new administrative wing was added at Wilhelmstrasse Nr 73, stretching to the corner of Vossstrasse. It was in this section that Chancellor Paul von Hindenburg had his offices, which then became Hitler's on his 'election' to the role in 1933. It was in front of an office on the first floor, not actually Hitler's as is often misconstrued, owing to the fact that the rooms facing the street got too hot in the summer, that Speer, newly appointed to the role of Inspector of Buildings in 1937, added a balcony for the Fuhrer to greet crowds of adoring fans who gathered outside. Never liking the building, Hitler said of it that it was only 'fit for a soap company' and that from the outside it gave the impression of 'a warehouse or of the city fire brigade building', while the inside was akin to 'a TB sanatorium'.
We are now standing in a side street off Wilhelmstrasse on the opposite side of the road from where the old Reichs Chancellery stood. This is the Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, or the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. It occupies a building that the Nazis conveniently left behind for future use; the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, RMVP or Propagandaministerium, the Reichs Ministry for Enlightenment and Propaganda. Within these walls, propaganda minister Josef Goebbels masterminded the Third Reich's image through censorship and governmental control over news media, the arts, and public broadcasting to become one of the most effective marketing tools of all 20th century dictatorships. Central to this ministry's role was the rise of the cult of personality, which promoted Hitler as being little less than a demi-god, as most ruthless dictators favour, and for a time, quite shockingly in retrospect, it worked - that is, until the inevitable world war, when Goebbels' words began to ring rather hollow.
Back on Wilhelmstrasse, we have crossed the road and are standing in front of the block of flats we saw in the previous image looking down the street. This is the approximate location of the main public entrance to the new chancellery, the Reichskanzlei designed by Speer. Looking west, we would have been facing the courtyard that was known as the Ehrenhof, where vehicles would pull up to a tall double doorway guarded by two members of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler SS Division and flanked by four columns with a Reichsadler above it and sculptures by Arno Brecker of classical male figures depicting Die Partei, and Der Wehrmacht. And if this wasn't intimidating enough, through the 17 foot high doors, up some stairs into the entrance foyer, one walks into the 150 foot long Mosaiksaal, which was predominantly burgundy marble with a sky lit ceiling. After carefully navigating one's way across the slippery floor, the visitor reached the Rundersaal, which was a circular dome capped room that was designed to off-set a kink in the building, the entry door being slightly off-centre at its opposite end. This was the entrance into the main building proper, and the grand passage known as the Marmorgalerie - Speer's attempt to upstage the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. All of this grandiosity gave an impression of might and power. When Speer questioned the bare marble floors that Hitler insisted that he not cover with rugs, as was his original intent, Hitler quipped, 'diplomats should have practise moving on a slippery surface!' How funny that this expression of grandeur has been replaced by Chinese and Mexican eateries!
We are on the corner of Wilhelmstrasse and Vossstrasse looking west toward Potsdamer Platz, across at the location of the new Reichs Chancellery; the officious beating heart of German national socialism. At the end of January 1938, the busy Inspector of Buildings was given the instruction by the Fuhrer to construct a new Reichskanzlei to be completed in January 1939; a seemingly impossible task, one that Speer amazingly managed to pull off. Beginning with the air raid shelter work detailed in the previous posts, Speer later commented that he already knew how he wanted the building to look from the inside and worked his way around the existing space the length of Vossstrasse, which the building occupied. Work progressed around the clock, with some 4,500 people beavering away at it on two shifts. After the first ceremonial topping out on 1 August 1938, the building was completed 48 hours ahead of schedule on 7 January 1939. A truly extraordinary effort given the scale of what was achieved; a 1,400 foot long monstrosity that Hitler himself was extremely impressed with, giving great delight in showing people round his new realm.
We are standing on Vossstrasse's north side facing due north, approximately where the Marmorgalerie stood in the new Reichskanzlei. This enormous length of Nazi grandiosity was 146 metres long at a breadth of 12 metres, at a height of 45 metres. anchored by another slippery marble floor, the side facing the road comprised 19 high windows constructed of burgundy marble known as Deutschesrot. Opposite stood five evenly spaced similarly framed doors, the centre one of which, crowned with a heraldic shield with the initials 'AH' was the entrance to Hitler's office, protected by two more of his personal SS bodyguards. On the top floor above the grand structure was his private apartment. Speer said of the Marmorgalerie that, 'Hitler was particularly impressed by my gallery because it was twice as long as the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles'. The ignominy, that this most impressive architectural symbol of the Third Reich should end up as a non-descript car park.
From the Marmorgalerie we move through Hitler's office, into the walled Chancellery garden, through which the Fuhrer would sneak out at night to visit his friend, the architect. The underground bunkers were out of the picture to the right. Speer's description of Hitler's arbeitsplatz describes it better than I could:
"The Fuhrer's office looks out to the garden terrace through five French windows 6 metres high and two metres wide. Five similar bays to those formed by the French widdows are repeated on the opposite wall, constructed with fine inlaid panels. In the middle bay on this side is the entrance door leading in from the Marmorgalerie. The office, which is 27 metrers long and 14.5 metres wide, has walls consisting of a dark red marble from Austria known as Limbacher. With a height of 9.75 metres, the room has a panelled ceiling with beams of darker wood that is a splendid feat of joinery. On the floor made of Ruhpolding marble lies a single large carpet." "His study met with his undivided approval. He was particularly pleased by the inlay on his desk representing a sword half drawn from its sheath. 'Good, good. When the diplomats sitting in front of me at this desk see that, they'll learn to shiver and shake'".
This building is the Landesvertretung Saarland, the government department representing the state of Saarland in western Germany.
Doubling back eastwards along Vossstrasse, we have entered the underground at the Mohrenstrasse U-bahn station. Why? Because it is rumoured that the walls and columns lining the platform were constructed of burgundy marble scavenged from the ruins of the Reichskanzlei. It has been proposed, according to 'new research', that this might not be the case, but I question this, especially since the station was reconstructed by the Soviets/East Germans, who repurposed as much as they could possibly do so from the chancellery ruins - and where else in the rubble of post-war Berlin could you find rich burgundy marble, except the aforementioned spaces? Besides, the same material was used to clad the massive stone columns resembling draped Soviet Red Banners at the second Soviet war memorial at Treptower Park, in the south east of the city (which we'll visit over the coming days), which was done, of course in retribution, as was the first Soviet war memorial on the Tiergarten. I'm sticking with the Reichskanzlei marble theory, especially since Mohrenstrasse U-bahn is literally a marble stone's throw from Vossstrasse; not far at all to drag reconstituted building materiels.
Our next stop is south along Wilhelmstrasse to the corner of Leipzigerstrasse, and the Platz des Volksaufstandes von 1953. This a memorial corner inlaid into the existing building commemorating the 17 June uprising in East Berlin in 1953, the reason that Strasse des 17 Juni was named. Inside the columned walkway to the left of the picture is a mural by Max Lingner depicting Socialist style scenes of harmony and prosperity, which overlooks the memorial, almost as an affront to the regime responsible for the turmoil caused on that day. Not surprisingly, the East German government would never have allowed such a commemoration, let alone on the grounds of the very building in which the state of the DDR was pronounced on 7 October 1949. Today this building is known as Detlev-Rohwedder Haus, named after politician Detlev Karsten Rohwedder, a Social-Democratic Party member who was tragically assassinated in his home in Dusseldorf on 1 April 1991. It serves as the Bundesministerium der Finanzen, or Federal Ministry of Finance today, but its original purpose was abbreviated into three incongruous letters, of which we on this forum are very familiar. RLM.
Next, more Nazi naughtiness; the RLM building and the horrors of Prinz Albrechtstrasse.
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Great narrative and pics Grant
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Sure is.
Great pics.
I have pictures of me standing next to East German and Soviet Soldiers at the Soviet War Memorial during my tour of East Berlin in 1988.
I have pictures of me standing next to East German and Soviet Soldiers at the Soviet War Memorial during my tour of East Berlin in 1988.
Crimea_River
Marshal
Once again, interesting presentation Grant. I walked a very similar path on my visit in 2017 including what's coming up.
Damn this is excellent
vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
It really is well done, thanks for posting these.
Lovely shots Grant!
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