Berlin/Potsdamer Platz

From World travel guide

Construction on Potsdamer Platz

Potsdamer Platz is a vibrant, modern district of central Berlin, the product of a major $3 billion redevelopment of an area that was almost completely destroyed by Allied bombing during the Second World War (1939-1945), then neglected as part of "no-man's land" between East and West during the period of the Berlin Wall (1961-1989). A discrete self-contained area but with good connections to district around it, Potsdamer Platz is situated between the Mitte and Tiergarten districts, being easily accessible from both.

1 Understand
2 Get in
- 2.1 By U-Bahn
3 See
4 External links

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Understand

Where the Wall once stood, a veritable no-man's-land of disused space, has now become one of the most popular tourist attractions in Berlin. Potsdamer Platz is being rebuilt by a team of world-famous architects to serve as the center of a new capital city looking forward to the future. An Infobox, a red three-story multimedia exhibit which contained interactive displays showing what would result from all the development, was the most visited object in the square (by Germans and foreigners alike) (The Info Box is still mentioned in many guides, but note that it is long gone now!).

While it should have been finished at the end of 1998, Potsdamer Platz's revitalization is still going strong, making up for over fifty years of neglect. A 3-story American-style shopping mall (Potsdamer Platz Arkaden, although employees can be fired for referring to it as a "mall"), the Sony Center, several large office highrises and Daimler-Benz's complex are some of the new business attractions on Potsdamer Platz, which was historically a heavily-trafficked area of Berlin. The Wall divided the Platz during the Cold War, but once more it plans to become the business center of Berlin (whereas Alexanderplatz is more a cultural and diplomatic center).

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