Memorials and Monuments: A walking tour from the Reichstag to Potsdam Square

Berlin was a stage for some of the world’s most horrendous events in the 1900s. On this walking tour, you’ll hear the city’s story told through its most important monuments and landmarks. These memorials remind us of the victims of the Nazis, but also of the Cold War, and of the heroic people who tried to fight the inhuman systems they lived in.

Our tour starts in the shadow of the Reichstag, at the heart of political Germany, where I’ll show you poignant and often overlooked memorials that most tourists miss. You’ll wind your way through Tiergarten Park and down 17 June Street, named for the 1953 protests against the East German regime that took place on that day. Along the way, I’ll show you a series of commemorative sculptures and memorials, including:

• The Ronald Reagan plaque, commemorating the politician’s 1987 visit, when he exclaimed: “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Tear down this Wall!”
• Celebrated artist Gerhard Marcks’ sculpture of a man shouting to East Berlin, entitled Der Rufer, created before the fall of the wall
• The two tanks that form the Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten
• Louis Toaillon’s Amazone zu Pferd (Amazon on Horseback) statue which, after many years of being moved from one spot to another, has found a permanent home in Tiergarten park
• Wolfgang Siemering’s Beethoven-Haydn-Mozart Memorial, commemorating the three great German composers

On our way to Potsdamer Platz, where this 90-minute tour ends, you’ll also have a chance to:

• Parade through the Brandenburg Gate like royalty
• Remember some of the victims who were shot trying to cross the Berlin Wall
• Snap photos outside Hotel Adlon where Michael Jackson almost dropped his baby, Prince Michael, in 2002
• Learn why Germany is indebted to the Polish Union Movement, especially Lech Walesa
• Find out why Frederic the Great was sentenced to death by his father, and then pardoned
• Stroll along Pariser Platz (Parisian Square) and discover which part of the Brandenburg Gate Napoleon stole as a trophy
• Hear about the British Embassy in Berlin and what makes it architecturally interesting
• Explore the Holocaust Memorial at your own pace
• Listen to the story of the Sinti and Roma people and learn about their plight
• Take in the Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism and hear the controversy around it

So get ready for a memorable tour through the highs and lows of Berlin’s fascinating history.

Please Note: A few times a year (around New Years, and also at times of major soccer tournaments), the Street June 17, and also the Brandenburg Gate, may be blocked. It may not be possible to easily cross from the Reichstag over to the other side of the Tiergarten then.

At present, the area in front of the Reichstag is a big construction zone. You will need to surround it either in front or behind the Reichstag. This may take an additional 5-10 minutes.

Music

Anamalie

by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.