I <3 Berlin

I went on an absolutely fantastic walking tour while I was in Berlin and I think our guide described it the best: Berlin isn't one of those visually stunning cities to just look at, but once you know the history and the stories behind everything, that's when you're amazed at what the city has to offer.

If you are ever in Europe the company (Sandeman's) runs free walking tours in Dublin, London, Munich, Berlin, Prague, Madrid, and Amsterdam. http://www.neweuropetours.eu/ The guides only work for tips and I had a former Model UN-er with a wicked sense of Irish humor. That being said, I'm going to do my best to re-create the tour for y'all.

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Brandenburg Gate

Now whoever thinks the Germans don't have a sense of humour should really check out the story of the statue on top of the Brandenburg Gate. The statue was originally called the Quadriga, however when Napoleon invaded Germany he took the statue to Paris. But alas in the early 1800s karma decided to be a biatch and the Prussian General Pfuel invaded Paris and brought the statue back to Berlin. It was then renamed Victoria, the goddess of Victory and now faces the French embassy. Pretty nifty.

Hotel Adlon

Do those balconies look familiar? It should, Michael Jackson infamously dangled his baby out on one of those balconies.

Reichstag

This is the house of the Bundestag, the German parliament. The lineup you see on the lefthand side of the picture is the lineup to go into the dome of the Reichstag building. It overlooks not only Berlin, but the chambers of parliament below as well. It's design was built to symbolize transparency and accountability in government.

Holocaust Memorial

This is also known as the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It is comprised of over 2,700 slabs of concrete of varying sizes arranged in a grid. It is not meant to represent any object in particular. Rather, the design is meant to evoke uneasy and confusing emotions that make the viewer unavoidably acknowledge and remember the victims of the Holocaust.

Hitler's former bunker

Below this very plain site lies Hitler's former bunker and where he commited suicide. There was a lot of debate in the German parliament as to whether a memorial sign should even be erected at the site.

The former largest office building in the world

This is the propaganda mural on the outside of the office building, upon its completion it housed the Nazi Air Force. It was replaced as the largest office building in the world a week after completion when the Pentagon was finished. I think it definitely says something about our world that the largest office buildings at the time were both occupied by military personnel.

Although now the building amusingly houses....

The German Finance and Revenue Agency!

Berlin Wall

The area behind this particular section of the Wall used to house the headquarters of the SS and the Gestapo.

Checkpoint Charlie

Where the world almost ended and the cold war almost become HOT.

Gendarmenmarkt

When Louis XIV of France evoked the Edict of Nantes, 5000 Protestants were uprooted to Berlin. The French cathedral was built to honor them. The square was named after the Gens d'Armes regiment that were deployed there until the late 1700s.

Memorial of the Nazi book burning

In May 1933 students burned more than 25,000 books by "un-German" writers, scientists and philosophers such as Kafka and Einstein.

The plaque next to the memorial reads "Where they have burned books, they will in the end burn people: - Henrich Heine

Heine had originally been referring to the burning of the Qu'ran during the Spanish inquisition.

Church across from the old National Parliament

This church amazes me because it wasn't actually built until the 20th century. This is where we also sat on the steps and concluded the tour with the story of how the Berlin Wall fell.

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I hope I did the tour some justice and that you all get to see Berlin at some point. There is a story in every part and place of the city that won't cease to amaze you.