Building sights in Germany
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Documentation Centre
Cologne's Third Reich history is poignantly documented in the Documentation Centre. In the basement of the building was the local Gestapo prison where scores of people were interrogated, tortured and killed. Inscriptions on the basement cell walls offer a gut-wrenching record of the emotional and physical pain endured by inmates.
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Kammergericht
West of Kleistpark, the imposing 1913 Kammergericht was the courthouse that staged the notorious show trials of the Nazi ‘people’s court’ against the participants – real and alleged – in the July 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler. Led by the fanatical judge Roland Freisler, hundreds of people were handed their death sentences; many were executed at Gedenkstätte Plötzensee, now a memorial site. Freisler, alas, was crushed to death by a falling beam in the court building during an air raid in February 1945, thereby avoiding what would undoubtedly have been a starring role at the Nuremberg Trials. After the war, the Allies used the building first as the seat o…
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Köpenick Rathaus
With its frilly turrets, soaring tower and stepped gable, Köpenick’s town hall exudes a fairytale quality but is actually more famous for an incident back in 1906. It involved an unemployed cobbler named Wilhelm Voigt, who managed to make a laughing stock of the Prussian authorities: costumed as an army captain, he marched upon the town hall, arrested the mayor, confiscated the city coffers and disappeared with the loot. And no one questioned his authority! At least for a while. Although quickly caught and convicted, Voigt became quite a celebrity for his chutzpah. Today a bronze statue of the Hauptmann of Köpenick guards the town hall entrance. There’s an entire exhi…
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DZ Bank
The Brandenburger Tor stands sentinel over the elegant Pariser Platz, which was completely flattened in WWII, then spent the Cold War trapped just east of the Berlin Wall. Look around now: embassies, banks and a luxury hotel have snapped up the city’s priciest real estate and hired top architects to rebuild in style and from the ground up. California-based deconstructivist Frank Gehry, for instance, masterminded the DZ Bank at No 3, which packs a visual punch past those heavy doors. You’ll only get as far as the foyer but that’s enough for a glimpse at the vast atrium with its bizarre free-form sculpture vaguely reminiscent of a fish but actually a conference room! Next…
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Neues Rathaus
The coal-blackened façade of the neo-Gothic Neues Rathaus, New Town Hall, is festooned with gargoyles and statues, including a dragon scaling the turrets. Inside, six grand courtyards host festivals and concerts throughout the year. For a good view of the city, ascend the 85m tower.
The highlight of the building is the Glockenspiel (carillon). Note the three levels: two portraying the Schäfflertanz and another the Ritterturnier, a knights' tournament held in 1568 to celebrate a royal marriage. The night scene featuring the Münchener Kindl (a girl in a monk's robe) and Nachtwächter (night watchman) runs at 21:00.
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Isherwood Building
Today’s celebs may prefer posh Mitte or Zehlendorf as their place of residence, but throughout the 20th century Schöneberg was where ‘it’ was at. In 1929 Christopher Isherwood moved to this pretty residential building from London to escape the sexual oppression in England and to live out his homosexual fantasies. His experiences and impressions – as well as the looming threat of the Nazis – are vividly chronicled in The Berlin Stories, which was adapted into the play ‘I am a Camera’ and later became the basis of the musical Cabaret starring Liza Minelli as Sally Bowles.
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Justizpalast
Just west of Karlsplatz, the 1890s Justizpalast looms like a pompous presence with neobaroque and neo-Renaissance flourishes. 'Justice' was not exactly meted out here on 22 February 1943 when Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst were condemned to death by the notorious judge Roland Freisler. The verdict was read at 13:00. Four hours later they were dead. There's a permanent exhibit about the sham trial in the very courtroom in room 253.
A second courthouse, the Neuer Justizpalast (New Palace of Justice) was built just a few years later and is more of a neo-Gothic confection.
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Flughafen Tempelhof
Aviation pioneer Orville Wright flew over its grassy field in 1909, Lufthansa ran its first scheduled flights from here in 1926 and in 1948–49 it had its finest hours during the Berlin Airlift. Lord Norman Foster called it ‘the mother of all airports’. Imposing and foreboding, the massive compound you see today was the brainchild of Nazi architect Ernst Sagebiel and is reportedly the world’s second-largest building after the Pentagon. Although a place of legend and mythology, Tempelhof airport finally closed amid much controversy in late 2008.
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Bowie Apartment Building
Today’s celebs may prefer posh Mitte or Zehlendorf as their place of residence, but throughout the 20th century Schöneberg was where ‘it’ was at. If you want to see where David Bowie and Iggy Pop bunked in the late ’70s, make your pilgrimage to the doorstep of a ho-hum apartment building at Haupstrasse 155. Bowie and Pop frequently hung out at the nearby Café Neues Ufer (Hauptstrasse 157), one of Berlin’s oldest lesbian and gay joints, when it was still known as ‘Anderes Ufer’.
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Chilehaus
The brown-brick Chilehaus is shaped like an ocean liner, with remarkable curved walls meeting in the shape of a ship's bow and staggered balconies that look like decks. Designed by architect Fritz Höger for a merchant who derived his wealth from trading with Chile, the 1924 building is a leading example of German expressionist architecture. It's situated alongside other so-called 'Backsteingotik' buildings ( Backstein refers to a specially glazed brick; gotik means 'Gothic').
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Ludwigskirche
The twin-towered Ludwigskirche, built by Friedrich von Gärtner between 1829 and 1844, is a sombre affair with a major showpiece: the Last Judgment fresco by the Nazarene painter Peter Cornelius in the choir. It's one of the largest in the world and an immodest - and thoroughly unsuccessful - attempt to outdo Michelangelo's version. Even King Ludwig I was none too impressed, which prompted Cornelius to beat a hasty retreat to Berlin.
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Yenidze
Northwest of the Altstadt, you can't miss what looks like a huge kitschy mosque with a great stained-glass onion dome. The Yenidze, the world's first reinforced concrete-framed building, actually started out life in 1907 as a tobacco factory, manufacturing an unsuccessful pseudo-exotic cigarette named Salaam Alakhem. Today it's home to three restaurants and a rooftop beer garden, with cultural events taking place in the dome.
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Staatsratsgebäude
With the Palast der Republik dismantled, Erich Honecker’s former HQ, the State Council Building, is the only remaining GDR structure on Schlossplatz. It’s now a business school and of interest only for its arched portal from the demolished Prussian city palace. The GDR honchos decided to spare it because it was from its balcony in 1918 that their ideological godfather Karl Liebknecht proclaimed (in vain) a Socialist republic.
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Shell-Haus
Looking like a giant upright staircase, the eye-catching Shell-Haus is one of the most famous office buildings created during the Weimar Republic. Designed by Emil Fahrenkamp in 1931, it was one of Berlin’s earliest steel-frame structures and is concealed beneath a skin of travertine. Its extravagant silhouette is best appreciated from the southern bank of the Landwehrkanal. It’s now the headquarters of a local gas company.
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Heckmann Höfe
For a retreat from the urban frenzy, skip on over to this idyllic courtyard complex linking Oranienburger Strasse with Auguststrasse. Kick back with cake and cappuccino in the café or listen to the trickling fountain while sprawled on a bench. There are also some unique shops here, including the Bonbonmacherei, an old-fashioned candy kitchen, and Sterling Gold, which specialises in retro ball gowns.
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Gotisches Haus
Whoever built this late-medieval Gothic House must not have been hurting for money, for it’s made of stone not wood, as was customary in those times. One of the oldest residential buildings in Berlin, this well-preserved Altstadt gem sports ornate net-ribbed vaulting on the ground floor, which houses the Spandau tourist office and changing exhibits on art and history.
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Trinkhalle
You can wander a 90m-long portico embellished with 19th-century frescoes of local legends in the Trinkhalle. Baden-Baden's elixir of youth, some say, is the free curative mineral water that gushes from a faucet (10am to 2am, until 3am Friday and Saturday) linked to the springs below. A cafe sells plastic cups for €0.20, or bring your own bottle to fill with super water.
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Hackesche Höfe
Thanks to its congenial mix of cafes, galleries, boutiques and entertainment venues, this attractively restored complex of eight interlinked courtyards is a major tourist magnet. Court 1, festooned with patterned art nouveau tiles, is the liveliest, while Court VII leads off to the whimsical Rosenhöfe with a sunken rose garden and tendril-like balustrades.
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Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen
Magdeburg's oldest building, a decommissioned medieval monastery, is now the Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen and presents regional sculptures and contemporary art from Saxony-Anhalt. The front door, designed by popular local artist Heinrich Apel (b 1935), is fun: you knock with the woman's necklace and push down on the man's hat to enter.
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Weinhaus Huth
This dignified structure, dwarfed by its postmodern neighbours, is the only eyewitness to the pre-WWII Potsdamer Platz. Designed in 1912 by Conrad Heidenreich and Paul Michel, it was one of the first steel-frame buildings in town and miraculously survived both WWII and the Berlin Wall. On the 4th floor are the breezy galleries of the Daimler Contemporary.
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Salzspeicher
Just behind the Holstentor (to the east) stand six gabled brick buildings. These are the Salzspeicher, once used to store salt transported from Lüneburg, which was then bartered for furs from Scandinavia and used to preserve the herrings that formed a substantial chunk of Lübeck's Hanseatic trade.
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Humboldt Universität
Marx and Engels studied and the Brothers Grimm and Albert Einstein taught at Berlin's oldest university, housed inside a former royal palace since 1810. Booksellers usually set up by the main entrance, below the statues of its founder, philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt, and his explorer brother Alexander.
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Arminius Markthalle
Moabit’s few charms can be explored on an easy stroll. From Turmstrasse U-Bahn station, the area’s commercial spine, head northwest to the Arminius Markthalle, the most authentic among Berlin’s three surviving fin de siècle market halls.
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Amalienburg
The royal gardens take the form of a magnificently landscaped English-style park. They contain a number of follies, including the Amalienburg, a dainty hunting lodge with a domed central room and the Pagodenburg Chinese teahouse.
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Lorettokapelle
The design of the little Loreto Chapel emulates the Gnadenkapelle in Altötting. Outside the prim church ensemble of St Nikolai and Lorettokapelle, the covered walkway protects some pretty nifty 'Stations of the Cross' made of Nymphenburg porcelain.
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