[Visited: November 2002 and before]
- From a distance, you can see dozens of huge cranes, towering above high offices, indicating the way to Potsdamer Platz. This is currently the biggest construction site of Europe, and one of the biggest in the world. Several buildings are already finished, notably the Deutsche Bahn tower, Sony Centre and Daimler building. There is a shopping mall and underground construction is going on on a completely new railway station.
- This is a direct hint of Potsdamer Platz's history. Berlin's first railway station once stood here, as did the Fatherland House, and many pubs dance halls. It was a pulsating part of Berlin, a crossroads of tram and bus lines, and the location of the first traffic lights outside the USA. But this is also the place where Hitler's bunker once stood, so at the end of World War II the entire area was bombed and completely destroyed. For decades, this area was wasteland, a hollow gap in a divided city. In front of Potsdamer Platz's station, you can still see the first piece of wall that was removed in 1989.
- But Potsdamer Platz is more future than past. Everything is new here, all the towers, high-rise buildings, stations, hotels, restaurants, apartments, casino, cinema, discos; it is all brand new. It must be a paradise for architects, as this is an area in which you can still build quite freely. The most special structure, according to me, is the Sony Centre, capped by a huge tent-like structure. During daylight, the sunrays play their game inside the metal-white structure, and in the evening colourful lights illuminate it from below, accentuating the cloth-like umbrella of the centre.
