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History of #BERLIN FULL TOUR Instander 2606
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00:00Have you ever asked why the U-Bahnhof Hermannplatz is so big and big built?
00:04Man had big plans, but the Nazis found it not so cool.
00:07In the 1920s from Berlin in Rasant to wachsen.
00:10Therefore, you need to combine central places, which the Bahnhofs, Verkehr and Einkaufsläden at one place to combine.
00:15And the Hermannplatz has passed perfectly.
00:16It's about enough Wohngebieten, but enough space for the Verkehr.
00:19Here opened man in 1929 one of the biggest Warenhouses of Europe.
00:24That Warenhaus Karstadt.
00:25It still exists today, but it doesn't even have the status of which he had.
00:28It's already big.
00:30But now look at the comparison to the past.
00:32You see it, right?
00:33With the power change in 1933, everything turned around 180 degrees.
00:37All of a sudden, it didn't fit into the world.
00:39It was political.
00:41For example, it was too big.
00:44Anonymität statt sozialer Kontrolle.
00:46Internationale Moderne statt Heimatstil.
00:48Funktionale Architektur statt monumentaler Traditionsbau.
00:52This was the most important part of the Warenhaus Karstadt.
00:55It didn't fit into the world.
00:55It was the first time of the world.
00:57It was the time of the world.
00:57It was the time of the world.
01:02The world's mind of the world's mind.
01:04It was a military event.
01:04Oh, I mean, in the world's place was going on.
01:06I mean, enough of the place was there.
01:07But that was about to be in the world's mind.
01:09So that was with the Sprengung unbrauchbar.
01:10After the war, this made it a way against the world's end,
01:13Bahnhofs. Stattdessen entstand in der Nachkriegszeit ein funktionaler Neubau. Und zwar das
01:18Warenhaus, wie wir es heute kennen. Und genau das ist der Grund, warum der Bahnhof überhaupt so groß
01:21gebaut wurde. Es hat zwei Ebenen. Die untere hat doch ziemlich hohe Decken, muss ich sagen. Und von
01:25den damaligen großen Stadtplanungen sollte das Warenhaus Karstadt und der U-Bahnhof Hermannplatz
01:31erst nur der Anfang sein. Kein Wunder, wenn die meisten Gänge hier auch direkt ins Kaufhaus führen.
01:35Wenn ihr mehr solcher Geschichten über Bahnhöfe sehen wollt, dann gebt dem Video gerne ein Herz,
01:38ein Follow, teilt das Video und kommentiert gerne, welcher Bahnhof als nächstes kommen soll.
01:42Anni Berliner, kennt ihr Alfred Grenander? Nein? Nach diesem Video werdet ihr realisieren,
01:47dass wir dem Mann viel zu verdanken haben. Und dafür behandle ich den Bahnhof Wittenbergplatz.
01:52Und mit dem Bahnhof kommt der reale Shit. Ich meine, schaut ihn euch doch mal an.
01:56Der hat eine majestätische Architektur, wurde aber 1902 nicht eröffnet. Erst war er eine
02:00gewöhnliche Untergrundstation. Doch als das U-Bahn-Netz in Berlin wuchs, wurde der zehn Jahre
02:05später zu einem fünftkleisigen Bahnhof mit drei Linien umgebaut. Kreiert durch Alfred Grenander.
02:10Einer der Architekten, welcher für den Bau von ca. 70 U-Bahn-Stationen in Berlin verantwortlich war.
02:15Mit der monumentalen Architektur soll der Bahnhof Wittenbergplatz Grenanders Meisterwerk sein.
02:20Im Zweiten Weltkrieg stark zerstört, wurde der Bahnhof in den 50ern wieder aufgebaut,
02:24in den 80ern unter Denkmalschutz genommen und dann schließlich originalgetreu nachkonstruiert.
02:29Rein von der Funktion könnte man den Wittenbergplatz auch mit dem Hermannplatz vergleichen,
02:33wenn es darum geht, ein Identifikationsgebäude zu repräsentieren.
02:36Der Bahnhof befindet sich nämlich in der sogenannten ehemaligen Berliner City West-Gegend.
02:41Damals während der Teilung fungierte diese Gegend als das kommerzielle Zentrum West-Berlins.
02:46Der Wittenbergplatz gehört dazu, weil sich in unmittelbarer Nähe das Kaufhaus des Westens
02:50oder auch das KDW befindet. Doch seit 1952 befindet sich dieses Schild hier.
02:56London Transport Executive schenkte dieses Schild zum Anlass des 50-jährigen Jubiläums der U-Bahn Berlin.
03:02Dieses Schild im Stile der Londoner U-Bahn wurde als Zeichen der internationalen Freundschaft vergeben.
03:07Diese Gedenktafel hier, welche 1967 errichtet wurde, soll an die ermordeten Juden gedenken,
03:12indem hier zahlreiche KZs aufgelistet werden.
03:15Wenn ihr mehr solcher Bahnhofsgeschichten gerne sehen wollt, dann gebt dem Video gerne ein Herz,
03:19teilt das Video und kommentiert gerne, welcher Bahnhof als nächstes kommen soll.
03:24In den letzten Tagen schien wieder die Sonne. Jaaa!
03:27Es gibt keinen besseren Anlass, über die Sonnenallee zu sprechen.
03:29Und dieser Witz hat ja genauso gepasst vom Timing wie der Streik am Wochenende.
03:33Und zwar gar nicht! Aber ey, kein Beef-BVG, wir haben mich trotzdem noch lieb.
03:36Na gut, jetzt wird gebildet.
03:381912 wurde der Bahnhof mit dem Namen Kaiser Friedrichstraße eröffnet.
03:431938 kam die erste Händung.
03:45Anlässlich zum 49. Geburtstag Adolf Hitlers wurde der Bahnhof am 20. April 1912
03:50nach seinem Geburtsort Braunau am Inn zur Braunauer Straße umbenannt.
03:54Der Name blieb bis 1947.
03:56Dann kam die finale Änderung zur Sonnenallee.
03:58Sie war einer der betroffenen Bahnhöfe von der damaligen Ringbahnsperre.
04:02Was war das?
04:02Wegen dem Mauerbau wurde genau hier die Ringbahn unterbrochen.
04:06Denn 1980 wurden viele Ringbahnstationen westlicher Seite nacheinander stillgelegt.
04:10Und zwar vom Westhafen bis hin zur Sonnenallee.
04:13Der Grund ist, dass die damalige Ringbahnstrecke von der DDR-Reichsbahn betrieben wurde.
04:17Boykotts und Streiks von der Westseite führten dazu, dass der Ring im Westen bis Mitte der
04:2280er geschlossen blieb.
04:23Der Ort fing dadurch an, seine Bedeutung dadurch langsam zu verlieren.
04:26Auch weil er sich direkt an der Mauergränze befand.
04:29Aber wie kam er jetzt auf den Namen Sonnenallee?
04:31Die Sonnenallee befindet sich im heutigen Neukölln.
04:33Neukölln war ursprünglich die damalige Stadt Rixdorf.
04:36Eine Stadt bekannt für ihre starke Kriminalität und Armut.
04:40Weil man sich von diesem schlechten Image loslösen wollte, hat man sich 1912 dazu entschieden,
04:44den Namen Rixdorf in Neukölln zu ändern.
04:46Und bis 1920 war Köln auch eine eigene Stadt, bis sie dann Teil von Berlin wurde.
04:51Wenn ganze Stadtteile geplant werden, tragen Straßennamen erst zugeteilte Nummern.
04:56Wusstet ihr das?
04:57Und das hier war die ehemalige Straße 84, die heutige Sonnenallee.
05:01Der Name sollte in der Kaiserzeit für Großstadtcharakter und Modernität stehen.
05:05Und die Sonne steht symbolisch für Fortschritt und Optimismus.
05:09So entstand die Sonnenallee.
05:10Und heute ist sie eine Gegend mit einer großen kulturellen Vielfalt und eine große Auswahl an
05:15Geschäften und Cafés.
05:16Wenn ihr mehr solcher Geschichten über Bahnhöfe gerne sehen wollt, dann gebt dem Video gerne
05:19ein Herz, teilt das Video und kommentiert gerne, welcher Bahnhof als nächstes kommen soll.
05:23Also ich hätte nicht gedacht, dass ein Bahnhof in Berlin diesen Namen trägt.
05:26Onkel Toms Hütte.
05:27Was steckt dahinter?
05:28Schaut dafür das Video bis zum Ende.
05:29In den 1929er Jahren entstand im Südwesten Berlins das Projekt Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf.
05:34Sie war Teil eines architektonischen Neuanfangs in der Weimarer Republik und gehört heute
05:38zur Berliner Moderne.
05:39Nach dem ersten Weltkrieg wollte man sich von den ganzen dicht bebauten Mietshäusern
05:42im Stadtzentrum lösen und bessere Lebensbedingungen schaffen.
05:45Und wegen ihrer vielfältigen Farben wird die Gegend auch Papageiensiedlung genannt.
05:49Doch wie kann man jetzt auf den Namen Onkel Toms Hütte?
05:51Der Name geht auf das Ausflugslokal Riemeister zurück.
05:54Es wurde in den 1880ern eröffnet.
05:56Es gab einen Wirt und er hieß Thomas.
05:59Er soll einen langen Bad gehabt haben und dies für die Gäste Schilfhütten errichten.
06:02Durch die Anlehnung an den weltberühmten Romanen hat sich der Name Onkel Toms Hütte im Volksmund etabliert.
06:07Und darum wurde das ehemalige Wirtshaus zu Onkel Toms Hütte umgenannt.
06:10Wahrscheinlich hat jede Kneipe in Berlin so lustige Geschichte.
06:12Und als die Waldsiedlung Zillendorf geplant wurde, war der Name schon fester Bestandteil.
06:16Es gibt sogar eine Onkel Toms Straße dort.
06:18Und genauso bekam der U-Bahnhof seinen Namen.
06:20Onkel Toms Hütte.
06:21Es entstand 1929 ein Bahnhof, den es architektonisch sicherlich nicht nochmal so in Berlin gibt.
06:26Erstens ist er wie ein Wohnhaus mitten im Block platziert.
06:28Und von außen, finde ich, hat er eine Ähnlichkeit seiner Mall, oder?
06:32Lustigerweise ist es eine, mit einem Bahnhof fusioniert.
06:34Denn mit der sogenannten Ladenstraße befindet sich im Bahnhofsgebäude eine Einkaufsadee.
06:38Direkt um den Bahnsteig herum gebaut.
06:40Sie war fest mit den Planungen der Waldsiedlung Zillendorf eingebunden und hält die Siedlung bis heute zusammen.
06:44Doch der Name sorgt auch für Diskussionen.
06:46Es wurde nämlich 2020 eine Petition für die Umbenennung des Bahnhofs gestartet.
06:50Es wurde beklagt, da der Name Onkel Tom rassistisch interpretiert werden könnte und daher nicht mehr zeitgemäß wäre.
06:55Ein großer Einfluss war auch das Timing.
06:57Denn 2020 fingen die Black Lives Matter Bewegungen an, immer größer und populärer zu werden.
07:01Allerdings hat er sich aus der Petition nichts ergeben und der Name bleibt bis heute bestehen.
07:06Was haltet ihr davon? Sollte der Name weiterhin verbleiben oder sollen selbe Konsequenzen gezogen werden wie bei der Mohrenstraße?
07:11Gerne eure Meinung in die Kommentare, solange ihr sachlich bleibt.
07:14Ansonsten das Video gerne liken, folgen und kommentieren, welcher Bahnhof als nächstes kommen soll.
07:18Schöne Wiese hier, nicht wahr? Doch dreht man sich weiter um, erblickt man das Luftbrückendenkmal.
07:23Was ist es und warum wurde der Bahnhof nach ihm benannt? Schaut dafür das Video bis zum Ende.
07:291947 startete der Marshallplan. Damit soll mithilfe der USA Europa wieder aufgebaut werden nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg.
07:35Die westlichen Sektoren Deutschlands, als auch Berlin, beteiligten sich daran. Außer Ostberlin. Besatzungszone der Sowjetunion.
07:42Und 1948 sollte mit der Währungsreform der Reichsmarkt durch den D-Mark ersetzt werden.
07:47Einer von vielen weiteren Faktoren der westlichen Mächte, wodurch die Sowjetunion befürchtete, ihre Macht dadurch zu verlieren.
07:53Und dann kam es zur Berlin-Blockade. Stromlieferungen wurden stark reduziert. Wasserwege wurden blockiert bis fast abgestellt.
07:59Die Menschen mussten gefühlt nur von Brot und Wasser leben. Die Sowjetunion wollte mit der Blockade Druck erzeugen, damit die
08:05Westmächte sich dadurch zurückziehen.
08:06Alles war kalt, dunkel und still. Er schien hoffnungslos in Westberlin.
08:10Bis dann mit der Luftbrücke eine der spektakulärsten Rettungsaktionen der Menschheitsgeschichte begann.
08:15Die Westmächte, größtenteils die USA, fingen zwei Tage nach der Blockade an, Flugzeuge einzusetzen, um Westberlin mit Lebensmitteln, Kohle und
08:22Medikamenten zu versorgen.
08:23Durchschnittlich landeten über 1200 an einem Tag.
08:265000 Tonnen an Gütern wurden täglich beliefert.
08:31Der Pilot Gail Halverson hatte sogar die Idee für die Kinder, Päckchen mit Süßigkeiten aus dem Flugzeug fallen zu lassen.
08:36Die kamen so mit Mini-Fallschirm runter, damit Kinder die dann suchen und sich dann belohnen konnten.
08:41Einfach eine schöne Sache, dass damals die Gefühle der Kinder berücksichtigt wurden.
08:44Die Blockade wurde schließlich 322 Tage später am 12. Mai 1949 aufgehoben.
08:49Und dieses Denkmal soll an die damalige Luftbrücke erinnern.
08:52Die drei Bögen sind westlich ausgerichtet. Ich glaube, das ist selbsterklärend.
08:55Diese Bögen stehen für die drei Luftkorridore, über die die Flugzeuge damals geflogen sind.
09:00Und der Standort macht auch völlig Sinn, weil sich in unmittelbarer Nähe der Flughafen Tempelhof befindet, da wo die Flugzeuge
09:04damals gelandet sind.
09:05By the way wurde der U-Bahnhof 1926 mit dem Namen Kreuzberg eröffnet, danach umbenannt zum Flughafen und dann nach
09:12der Einweihung des Denkmals Plasser Luftbrücke.
09:13Dieses Ereignis hat den Zusammenhalt der Westmächte umso mehr gestärkt.
09:17Genau das, was die Sowjeten damals versucht haben zu verhindern.
09:20Für mehr Bahnhofsgeschichten dieser Art gerne einmal liken, teilen und kommentieren, welcher Bahnhof als nächstes kommen soll.
09:25Der U-Bahnhof Kochstraße ist relativ unscheinbar, doch ein paar Meter darüber hätte beinahe der Dritte Weltkrieg entstehen können.
09:30Der Bahnhof wurde 1923 auf der heutigen U6 eröffnet.
09:33Erstmals nur mit dem Namen Kochstraße.
09:35Die Station wurde nach dem Berliner Grundstücksbesitzer Johann Jakob Koch benannt.
09:39Er hat nämlich im 18. Jahrhundert für die Städterweiterung Berlins Land zur Verfügung gestellt.
09:43Und hier befindet sich ein ehemaliges Grundstück von Koch, weshalb ihm zu Ehren die Straße und dann der U-Bahnhof
09:48benannt wurde.
09:49Architektonisch ist der Bahnhof relativ unspektakulär, eine simple, funktionierende Bauweise.
09:53Doch seit 1990 kam der Name hinzu, Checkpoint Charlie.
09:56Was war das?
09:57Es war ein allieter Grenzübergang, und zwar zwischen dem US-Sektor in West-Berlin und von der Sowjetunion kontrollierten Ost
10:03-Berlin.
10:041961 in Betrieb genommen und benannt nach einem Alphabetsystem der Alliierten.
10:08Und zwar genau so.
10:09Schließlich kam es zum 27. Oktober 1961.
10:12Es kam zu einem Streit über Kontrollrechte.
10:15Nach dem Mauerbau ließ die DDR anordnen, dass am Checkpoint Charlie zivile US-Angestellte bei Fahrt nach Ost-Berlin ihre
10:21Pässe vorzeigen sollen.
10:22Doch die USA lehnt es ab, weil sie damit diplizieren würden, die DDR als eigenen Staat Anzeug kennen.
10:27Das war ein Problem, da Berlin unter dem Vier-Mächte-Status stand.
10:30Hätte man die DDR als Staat angesehen, welches man mit einer Passkontrolle tut, hätte es aus Sicht der USA den
10:35Vier-Mächte-Status stark gefährdet.
10:37Und so wurden US-Diplomaten auf dem Weg zum Checkpoint Charlie mit Panzern begleitet.
10:41Die Sowjetunion reagierte gleich.
10:4316 Stunden standen sich die Panzer mit scharfer Munition gegenüber.
10:46Es hätte jederzeit zu einer militärischen Eskalation kommen können.
10:49Ganz Berlin hielt die Luft an.
10:50Schlussendlich wurde der Konflikt diplomatisch zwischen Kennedy und Khrushchev gelöst.
10:54Die Panzer beider Seiten zogen sie schrittweise zurück.
10:57Und damit wurde der Checkpoint Charlie an der Kochstraße zu einem wichtigen Symbol, der zeigt, wie nah man in Berlin
11:02an einem Krieg war.
11:03Wenn ihr mehr solcher Geschichte über Bahnhöfe gerne sehen wollt, dann gebt ihr bitte gerne ein Herz, teilt das Video
11:07und kommentiert gerne, welcher Bahnhof als nächstes kommen soll.
11:10Der Wuletal ist der einzige Bahnhof in Berlin, wo US- und U-Bahnen direkt nebeneinander fahren.
11:14Aber wieso? Was ist die Geschichte hinter?
11:17Schaut ab für das Video bis zum Ende.
11:18In den 80ern entstand nicht weit weg vom Wuletal eine der größten Siedlungen Europas damals.
11:23Und zwar die Plattenbausiedlung Marzahn.
11:25Diese sorgte für einen Zuzug von ca. 100.000 Menschen.
11:28Der öffentliche Nahverkehr bestand vor Ort nur aus Bussen und Trams.
11:31Das musste man schon nichts ändern, weil es auf Dauer natürlich nicht ausreichend war.
11:35Das ist der entscheidende Faktor gewesen, weshalb der Bahnhof Wuletal überhaupt errichtet wurde.
11:39Die S5 verlief viel zu südlich von der Siedlung, für die Anwohner daher kaum erreichbar.
11:43Darum war 1989 die Verlängerung der U5 Richtung Osten notwendig, die ursprünglich nur bis zur Station Elsterwerter Platz verlief.
11:50Die Verlängerung der U5 und die Erbauung der Plattenbausiedlung gehörte zu den größten Infrastrukturprojekten der späten DDR.
11:56Und hier verlief eine alte Bahntrasse, die den Bau wesentlich erleichterte.
12:00Du findest es interessant? Dann folg mir auf Süßbro.
12:02Und weil alles schnell laufen musste, wurde der Bahnhof schon am 1. Juli 1989 eröffnet.
12:08Kein Tunnelbau, architektonisch funktional, aber relativ unspektakulär.
12:12Und wegen der vorhandenen Trasse war die logische Konsequenz, dass man die S5 und die U5 an einem Bahnhof bzw.
12:18auf einem Bahnsteig errichtete.
12:20Und das nennt man auch Cross-Plattform.
12:23Dankeschön.
12:24Keiner Fun-Fact. Obwohl hier die S-Bahn fährt, ist der Bahnhof trotz allem kompletter Eigentum der BVG.
12:29Diese Entscheidung trug maßgeblich dazu bei, dass der Wuhletal zu den effizientesten Umsteigepunkten Berlins gehört.
12:35Hunderttausende Menschen steigen hier täglich um.
12:37Der wird auf jeden Fall wegen seiner einzigartigen Geschichte besonders bleiben.
12:40Wenn ihr mehr solche Bahnhofsgeschichte gerne sehen wollt, dann gebt dem Video gerne Herz, teilt das Video und kommuniziert gerne,
12:45wenn der Bahnhof als nächstes kommen soll.
12:48Ich bin ein Berliner.
12:52Der Satz kommt uns sicher bekannt vor, oder? Dieser fehlt tatsächlich bei dem U-Bahnhof Rathaus Schöneberg.
12:57Doch eigentlich gehörte ursprünglich diese Station nie zu Berlin. Warum?
13:01Schau dir für das Video bis zum Ende.
13:02Wusstet ihr, dass Schöneberg mal eine eigenständige Großstadt war?
13:05Mit etwa 155.000 Einwohnern war sie mit anderen deutschen Großstädten damals vergleichbar.
13:10Doch dann wurde sie 1920 wegen dem Großraum Berlin gesetzt zu dem Bezirk, wie wir ihn heute kennen.
13:15Die U4, mit der Station eingeschlossen, wurde vorher schon errichtet. Und zwar als eigenständiges Projekt der Stadt Schöneberg.
13:21Fällt euch auf den Bildern die Wand auf? Die ist voll verziert mit Fenstergläsern.
13:25Die sind nicht umsonst dort, denn bei frühen Bahnhöfen hat man nämlich Wert darauf gelegt, so viel Tageslicht wie möglich
13:31reinzulassen.
13:31Und mit der relativ hellen Bahnhofswand fliebern es sogar noch besser.
13:34Viele U-Bahnhöfe in Berlin wurden mit der sogenannten offenen Bauweise errichtet.
13:38Rathaus Schöneberg eingeschlossen.
13:40Doch dass man bewusst geplant hat, hier Tageslicht reinzulassen, macht den Bahnhof einzigartig.
13:44Du hast bis hierhin geschaut? Dann folg mir doch, Bro.
13:47Am 26. Juni 1963 hielt John F. Kennedy auf dem Balkon des Rathauses Schönebergs seine legendäre
13:53Ich bin ein Berliner Rede.
13:54Vor ihm auf dem Platz befanden sich 400.000 Menschen.
13:58Kennedy wollte zwei Jahre nach der Erbauung der Berliner Mauer mit seiner Rede eine Botschaft senden.
14:02Und zwar, dass das damalige West-Berlin zur freien Welt gehört.
14:05Und zu dieser Zeit war das Rathaus Schöneberg das politische Zentrum im damaligen West-Berlin.
14:10Und genau hier, in der Nähe des U-Bahnhofes, welcher auch vom Rathaus Schöneberg seinen Namen übernahm, wurde Geschichte geschrieben.
14:16Entschuldigt, dass ich nicht vom Inneren des Bahnhofs euch ein paar Aufnahmen zeigen kann.
14:20Aktuell ist die gesamte U4 gesperrt.
14:21Wenn ihr mehr solche Bahnhofsgeschichten gerne sehen wollt, dann gebt dem Video gerne ein Herz, lasst ein Follow da, teilt
14:26das Video und kommentiert gerne, welcher Bahnhof als nächstes kommen soll.
14:29This street was meant to prove that socialism was superior.
14:33Karl Marx Allee is Berlin's widest Grand Boulevard.
14:36Originally named Stalin Allee, it was built in the 1950s from the rubble of the destroyed city.
14:42Broad avenues, triumphal facades and monumental proportions turned the ruins into a stage for socialist urban planning.
14:50It was more than a housing project, it was a political showcase.
14:54The imposing twin towers of Frankfurter Tor mark the eastern end of the boulevard, standing there as iconic gateways to
15:01the city.
15:02After Stalin's death in 1953, it was renamed Karl Marx Allee and the boulevard became a backdrop for the May
15:10Day parades of the GDR.
15:11Today, Karl Marx Allee is both a residential street and an architectural time capsule, a place one must see to
15:20understand Berlin's socialist legacy.
15:22Why are there Soviet T-34 tanks in the middle of Berlin?
15:26Behind them stands the Soviet war memorial, Tiergarten, built in 1945, just after the capture of Berlin.
15:33Beneath it lies a mass grave for over 2,000 Soviet soldiers.
15:38Constructed just months after the end of the Second World War, it honours the Red Army soldiers who fell during
15:44the Battle of Berlin.
15:45At its centre stands a Red Army soldier, facing east, towards the Soviet Union.
15:51What makes this site unique is its location.
15:54During the Cold War, this Soviet memorial stood in the British sector of West Berlin, guarded by Soviet soldiers, just
16:02a short distance from the Brandenburg Gate.
16:04After German reunification, responsibility for the site passed to Germany.
16:10Its preservation remains a permanent obligation.
16:13The Berlin Philharmonie is one of the most influential concert halls of the 20th century.
16:18Built between 1960 and 1963, the designs by architect Hans Scharoun, it redefined how music could be experienced in space.
16:27Instead of a traditional front-facing stage, Scharoun developed the vineyard principle.
16:32The orchestra sits at the centre, surrounded by terrace seating, bringing the audience closer to the performance from every angle.
16:40The asymmetrical form and tent-like roof break with classical symmetry, expressing a more organic and democratic idea of architecture.
16:49The exterior gleams with golden aluminium panels added in the late 1970s.
16:54Originally, however, it was much more modest due to budget constraints.
16:58In 1987, the Kammermusiksaal was added next to the main hall, based on Scharoun's original plans and completing the architectural
17:06ensemble.
17:07Today, it is renowned for its exceptional acoustics and has become a model for concert halls around the world.
17:16368 metres high, still the tallest building in Germany and Berlin's most iconic structure.
17:22Built between 1965 and 1969 by the GDR, the Berlin TV Tower was constructed using stacked concrete rings.
17:31Its concrete shaft and steel-clad sphere combine brutalist simplicity with futuristic flair, inspired in part by the Zatellite Sputnik.
17:40More than a TV transmitter, it was a political message, East Germany's claim to progress and visibility.
17:47Ironically, when sunlight hits the sphere, it reflects a cross, dubbed the Pope's Revenge by the West Berliners.
17:55Today, the Fernseeterm is a Berlin icon.
17:57It houses a revolving restaurant at 207 metres and an observation deck with views up to 40 kilometres on clear
18:04days.
18:05Once a Cold War monument, now a selfie hotspot and symbol of unity.
18:11Museum Island is Berlin's classical cultural heart, where five world-renowned museums rise from the River Spree.
18:19Built over a century, this UNESCO World Heritage Site transformed a swampy island into a temple of art and knowledge.
18:28It was an Enlightenment vision made stone.
18:32The Altus Museum, the Neues Museum, the Alte National Gallery, the Bode Museum and the Pergamon Museum.
18:40Each housing treasures from different eras.
18:43Bombed in World War II and neglected in the post-war years, the island lay in East Berlin, where the
18:50GDR began its careful restoration.
18:52After reunification, renewed efforts brought the ensemble back to its full grandeur.
18:59The House of the Teacher at Alexanderplatz is one of the most distinctive buildings of East German Modernism.
19:05Constructed between 1961 and 1964, it was intended to serve as a centre for education and social life in socialist
19:13Berlin.
19:13The high-rise follows the clear design language of post-war international modernism.
19:19Aluminium windows, a light curtain façade, and its slender structure made it one of the most modern buildings in the
19:26GDR at the time.
19:28A monumental mosaic frieze wraps around the entire building.
19:32Walter Wormacka's artwork, Our Life, covers 890 square meters of mosaic surface and depicts scenes from the idealized everyday life
19:41of socialist society.
19:43With around 800,000 coloured mosaic tiles, the artwork transforms the building into a political narrative in the urban landscape.
19:52Today, used as commercial office space, the House of the Teacher stands as a testament to a time when architecture
19:58and art were meant to convey a shared social vision.
20:03Once a monument to Prussian triumphs, built to glorify war, moved by Hitler's megalomania and transformed into a symbol of
20:11diversity.
20:12The Siegesseule was erected in 1873 to commemorate Prussia's victories, its shaft decorated with captured cannons.
20:21At its top stands Victoria, affectionately known as Goldelse by Berliners.
20:26In 1938, Hitler had it moved from the Reichstag to the Tiergarten for his vision of Welthauptstadt Germania, making it
20:35taller, more imposing, and a dominant landmark of the east-west axis.
20:39After 1945, the Allies allowed it to remain, despite French calls for demolition.
20:46A symbol of militarism, survived defeat.
20:50Today, it is a meeting point for legendary celebrations, from the Love Parade, to major events such as the Berlin
20:56Marathon, Christopher Street Day, and public viewing.
21:00A white wooden guard booth on a busy Berlin street, once the most dangerous border crossing in the world.
21:07Checkpoint Charlie was the Cold War's flashpoint, where east met west, and two superpowers stood face to face.
21:15Established in 1961, after the wall went up, this Allied crossing point became a symbol of division.
21:22Tanks rolled up to the line, spies crossed in secret, and the famous sign warned,
21:28You are leaving the American sector.
21:31It was more than a border, it was the fault line of ideologies.
21:36In October 1961, American and Soviet tanks faced off here for 16 hours over a diplomat denied passage, the closest
21:45the superpowers came to war.
21:48What appears to be a casual selfie stop, was once the epicentre of a confrontation that could have started a
21:55nuclear conflict.
22:00No monument has witnessed Germany's struggles like the Brandenburg Gate, from Prussian glory to Nazi parades, to destruction and Cold
22:08War division.
22:09Built in 1791 as a symbol of peace, it was crowned by the Quadriga, a goddess of victory, riding a
22:16chariot pulled by four horses.
22:18But peace was fleeting.
22:20Napoleon marched through in 1806, and took the Quadriga to Paris as a war trophy.
22:26After the destruction of the Second World War, it got trapped in no man's land, when the wall went up
22:31in 1961.
22:33Then came November 9th, 1989. The wall fell, and Berliners climbed onto the wall, celebrating freedom.
22:41That night, this ancient gateway transformed from a symbol of separation into a symbol of unity.
22:47Is this Berlin's most radical building complex?
22:51The Palastrasse high-rise bunker, and the brutalist Palasseum, merge here into one of the most extreme places in the
22:58city.
22:58The bunker was built at the end of the Second World War, by forced labourers.
23:02After 1945, demolition attempts failed.
23:06The concrete colossus remained as a massive relic of war in the middle of Schoenberg.
23:11In the 1970s, a housing complex was built above it, stretching like a bridge over the bunker.
23:17A brutalist ensemble of wartime architecture and social housing.
23:22The Palasseum connects the bunker to the former site of the Sportpalast.
23:26This is where Josef Goebbels delivered his total war speech.
23:33Today, the complex still towers over Schoenberg, like an urban monument, somewhere between memorial, housing machine and Berlin exception.
23:42This building tells German history like no other.
23:47The Reichstag has witnessed it all.
23:49Germany's heart of democracy, scarred by fire, war and division.
23:55Built in 1894 as the seat of the German Empire, it became a symbol of democracy under the Weimar Republic.
24:01But in 1933, a mysterious fire gutted the building.
24:07Hitler's excuse to seize absolute power and end German democracy.
24:13During World War II, Soviet soldiers raised the red flag over its ruins in 1945.
24:19The iconic photograph that signalled Nazi Germany's defeat.
24:23For decades, the Reichstag stood as a hollowed-out shell in divided Berlin.
24:29After reunification in 1990, Sir Norman Foster rebuilt it with a revolutionary glass dome.
24:35Today, visitors walk inside that dome, literally standing above their elected representatives.
24:41A reminder that in Germany, the people stand above the government, not beneath it.
25:10At muthaven place and the only place of Berlins would be found in abandoned containers.
25:15And of course, the streets were broken.
25:15It's a strange thing to see, how much damage was been introduced to the war with the war initalia.
25:19We are always aware of the place where you think about the land that is built in Barcelona.
25:21Why do you think that this place is the longest glorious man sometime philosophically perimeter?
25:24One of the quiet, almost just a small flowering, a peach tree, is the only true story.
25:26Two of the most infamous flowering plants in the back of the city are untied with two of the famous
25:27flowering plants.
25:29Come on with, let's go.
25:31You start in the Lilienthal-Park.
25:32There's already a absolute highlight, but it's already a huge highlight, but I swear to you, it's much better.
25:36You leave the Blütenmeer in the entrance to the south.
25:39Over the river of the woods you reach in a few minutes the bridge.
25:43Here you come, you take the small road right near the bridge.
25:47This is my favorite part and you can walk through a dream of the wild.
25:52You finally land at the end of the southern end of the largest Kirschblütenallee Berlin.
25:58Another highlight, through which you can comfortably swim.
26:00In the middle of Oskort station in Berlin there is a tower built in 1912.
26:07Let me tell you what it is.
26:09Steam locomotives need enormous amounts of water to run.
26:13So they built this 59 meter tower right between the tracks.
26:17That pointed roof that looks like an old German military helmet.
26:21The water tank is hidden inside it.
26:23400 cubic meters of pressurized water, invisible from the outside.
26:27The violet glazed bricks were designed to resist the soot from the engines.
26:31Every single detail had a purpose.
26:34For 70 years the tower did exactly that.
26:37Then diesel replaced steam.
26:39The tank, the valves, the pressure systems all still inside perfectly intact.
26:44The tower just stopped and has been standing empty ever since.
26:49In 2015 Deutsche Bahn sold it to a private investor for an undisclosed six-figure sum.
26:54There were 40 potential buyers.
26:56The plan was to turn it into a restaurant.
26:58A viewpoint.
27:00Maybe apartments.
27:0110 years later, nothing has happened.
27:03The pigeons are still there.
27:05112 years old.
27:07250,000 people walking past it every day.
27:10And nobody knows what to do with it.
27:12That is very Berlin.
27:13On Alexanderplatz in Berlin you have probably seen this mosaic.
27:17But the real story is more than the mural itself.
27:20It is the building behind it.
27:22Its name is Haus des Lehrers.
27:24The house of teachers.
27:25And its story does not begin with communism.
27:28In 1908, 3,000 Berlin teachers opened their own association house on this exact spot.
27:34A library.
27:35A hotel for visiting teachers.
27:37A grand event hall.
27:39A civic temple built by teachers for teachers.
27:42In the final days of World War II, Allied bombs destroyed it.
27:46For 17 years, only a hole remained.
27:48In 1962, communist East Germany, the DR rebuilt on the same spot.
27:53They kept the old name.
27:55They changed everything else.
27:57The regime hired Walter Wamaka, a loyal party artist, to cover it in 800,000 tiles.
28:02The largest socialist mosaic ever made.
28:05Today, the old teacher's house still stands at Alexanderplatz.
28:09The ideology is gone.
28:10The art remains.
28:12Walk past the TV tower and look up.
28:14Follow for more hidden stories.
28:15Frankfurter Tour, Berlin.
28:17These two domes look like the 18th century cathedrals of Gendarmenmarkt.
28:22But they are not.
28:23They were built in 1953, in East Berlin, as Soviet propaganda.
28:28The avenue you see here was called Stalinalli back then.
28:32Thousands of East German workers were forced to build this monument to Stalin under brutal
28:37work quotas.
28:38On June 16, the men of Block 40 dropped their tools and marched.
28:42One million people joined them across the country.
28:45The next morning, Soviet tanks rolled down this same avenue and crushed them.
28:50At least 125 were killed.
28:53The workers who had built the street of Stalin became the first to die resisting him.
28:58Eight years later, in a single November night, the regime secretly tore down Stalin's statue
29:03and renamed the street Karl Marx Ali.
29:06The twin towers still stand at Frankfurter Tour, on the U5 line.
29:11You can walk the same stones the strikers walked, and touch the very columns they built
29:16with their own hands.
29:18Follow for more stories.
29:19The Trannenpalast hides one of the most painful stories in Berlin.
29:23Berlin, the 13th of August, 1961.
29:27The wall divides the city in two.
29:30East on one side, west on the other.
29:33Families are torn apart.
29:34But there is one point at Friedrichstrasse Station where Western visitors could say goodbye
29:38to their Eastern family members before crossing back.
29:41It was called the Apfertigungshalle, the processing hall.
29:45And only those from the west could go through it.
29:48Those from the east stayed behind.
29:51East Germans were not allowed to cross.
29:53They could only stand there and watch their family walk away.
29:56Nobody knew if they would ever see each other again.
29:59The building had an official name.
30:01Nobody used it.
30:02Everyone called it the Palace of Tears.
30:04On the 9th of November, 1989, the wall fell.
30:08The Palace of Tears closed its doors.
30:11Years later, it became a nightclub.
30:13Then a museum.
30:15The original control booths are still there.
30:17Today, you can walk through the same corridor families once crossed
30:21and listen to the testimonies of those who lived those goodbyes.
30:25Free entry.
30:27Follow for more stories.
30:28The Reichstag hides a secret that millions of tourists walk right past.
30:32Berlin, the 2nd of May, 1945.
30:36The Soviet army had been fighting for four years to get here.
30:40On the 2nd of May, they take the Reichstag.
30:42Hitler was already dead in his bunker just a few meters away.
30:45The soldiers walked into the building and wrote on the walls.
30:49Their names, their hometowns, the road they had traveled.
30:52From Moscow to Berlin, from Leningrad to Berlin.
30:56In Cyrillic, with charcoal and chalk.
30:58After the war, workers covered the walls with wooden panels to repair the building.
31:04That's how it stayed for 50 years.
31:06In 1995, architect Norman Foster removed those panels during renovation,
31:11and behind them, carved into the stone, found the graffiti completely intact.
31:16Foster decided to keep them.
31:19Today, German members of parliament walked to work, and passed by the messages left by the soldiers who defeated Nazism.
31:25They are still there.
31:27Did you know this story?
31:28Follow for more.
31:29Berlin, 1964.
31:32The car you see here is not like any other car.
31:35It hides an interesting story inside one that began not on these streets but 7 years earlier,
31:40in a factory in a city called Zwickau.
31:43That engine, 2 cylinders, 26 horsepower was built here.
31:47Zwickau, 1957.
31:49These workers built every single Traubont ever made.
31:53For 35 years, the engineers designed better cars, modern ones, faster ones.
31:58But the government always said no.
32:00There was no steel.
32:02No money.
32:03No will to change.
32:05So the factory kept building the same car, year after year, decade after decade,
32:10while on the other side of the wall, West Germany was building the Golf.
32:14But the real story is not the car.
32:16It's the weight.
32:18To get a Traubont in East Germany, you had to put your name on a list.
32:21The average weight, 13 years.
32:24Most families signed up the day their child was born.
32:27By the time the car arrived, that child was a teenager.
32:30Then came November 9, 1989.
32:34The wall opened.
32:35And every Traubont in East Germany drove west.
32:39The streets of West Berlin filled with blue smoke.
32:41The Traubont's two-stroke engine burned oil mixed with fuel.
32:45That was its signature.
32:47People called it the perfume of freedom.
32:49Today you can drive one yourself.
32:51In Berlin, Travi World offers a tour through the city, past Checkpoint Charlie,
32:56the Brandenburg Gate, and the East Side Gallery.
32:59The same car.
33:00The same smell.
33:01The same feeling of crossing to the other side.
33:05And live your own nostalgia.
33:06That's what East Germans called the nostalgia for a world that no longer exists.
33:12Two of the most powerful men on earth.
33:14Kissing on the lips.
33:16Intense, right?
33:17But in the socialist world, this was completely normal.
33:21The fraternal kiss was a ritual between communist leaders.
33:25A symbol of brotherhood and loyalty between nations.
33:27But this particular kiss between Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German ruler Eric Honecker
33:34became the most famous of them all.
33:37Years later, a Russian artist named Dmitry Ruble found the photo so revolting it almost made him vomit.
33:44But the image haunted him until he painted it on the very wall that had divided the world.
33:50He titled it, My God, help me to survive this deadly love.
33:55But let me tell you what happened to these two leaders.
33:58Brezhnev suffered multiple heart attacks and could barely speak in his final years.
34:03He died in 1982, seven years before the wall fell.
34:07He never saw it come down.
34:09Honecker was diagnosed with liver cancer and thrown out of power just weeks before the wall fell.
34:14He fled to Moscow, then to Chile, where he died alone.
34:20Today, their kiss still lives at the East Side Gallery in Berlin.
34:23You can visit it yourself.
34:26Markthallin Neuen, Berlin.
34:28Today, one of the most iconic food markets in Europe.
34:31But when it opened in 1891, it wasn't built for foodies.
34:35It was built because a doctor, known as the Pope of Medicine, said open-air markets were killing people.
34:41Rudolf Verschau.
34:43Born in a small Prussian town, now part of Poland.
34:46He designed Berlin's sewer system, founded modern pathology, and investigated a typhus epidemic that changed public health forever.
34:54He looked at Berlin's markets and saw blood running over the pavement, flies on everything, meat rotting in the sun.
35:01He convinced the city to build 14 covered market halls.
35:05This was number nine.
35:07In 2009, the city wanted to demolish it.
35:10Replace it with a discount supermarket.
35:12But this is Kreuzberg, Berlin's most rebellious neighborhood.
35:17The people fought back.
35:18And won.
35:19It reopened in 2011.
35:22Same building.
35:23120 years.
35:25Still feeding whoever walks through the door.
35:27Follow for more hidden stories.
35:30All of them, soon in your pocket.
35:32Bode Museum.
35:33Berlin.
35:342017.
35:35Someone stole 100 kilos of gold from this museum.
35:39On skateboard.
35:40At 3am.
35:41This is the big maple leaf.
35:42The largest gold coin ever made.
35:44Pure Canadian gold.
35:46100 kilos.
35:47Worth 4 million dollars.
35:49And it was just sitting in a glass case on the second floor.
35:53Two cousins with ties to organized crime got a security guard hired weeks earlier as their
35:58inside man.
35:59At 3am, they climbed through a window, smashed the case with a carbon reinforced axe and grabbed
36:05the coin.
36:06100 kilos of gold.
36:08They put it on a skateboard, wheeled it through the museum, out to a park, and into a car.
36:1316 minutes.
36:15Gone.
36:16The coin was never found.
36:17Police believe it was melted down and sold in pieces.
36:20You can still visit the Bode Museum.
36:23Byzantine art.
36:24Donatello sculptures.
36:26And half a million coins in their collection.
36:28Just not that one.
36:30And you thought museum robberies only happened in Paris.
36:33Follow for more hidden stories.
36:35All of them, soon in your pocket.
36:37The Hakka-Shahufa in Berlin are the most beautiful courtyards in the city.
36:42Every day, thousands of tourists walk through them, take photos, drink coffee, and admire
36:49the Art Nouveau tiles.
36:50But these walls remember something the guidebooks don't tell you.
36:54A hundred years ago, these streets in the Scheunenwirtel were the beating heart of Jewish Berlin.
37:01Tens of thousands of Jewish families lived, worked, and raised their children right here.
37:06The Hakka-Shahufa was their center.
37:08In 1942, a young Jewish man named Gad Beck lived in this neighborhood.
37:15When the Nazis arrested his boyfriend Manfred Lewin and his entire family, Gad disguised himself as a member of the
37:21Nazi youth
37:22and walked straight into the deportation center to get him out.
37:26Gad found Manfred and told him,
37:28Come with me, we can escape.
37:31But Manfred looked at his parents and his siblings waiting in line.
37:35He refused to leave without them.
37:37The next morning, the entire Lewin family was deported to Auschwitz.
37:42None of them came back.
37:44Gad Beck survived the war and moved to Palestine.
37:46Years later, he came back to Berlin, where he told this story until he died in 2012.
37:53Today you can walk through the Hakka-Shahufa, exactly where these families once lived.
37:58If you visit Berlin, walk through them, and remember who was here before.
38:04Follow for more stories.
38:06In the heart of Berlin, there's a clock that shows the time of 148 cities around the world.
38:13Millions of people meet here every day without knowing that behind this clock there's a story nobody tells.
38:20In 1932, a boy named Eric John was born in Kartits, a tiny village in Czechoslovakia.
38:28When the war ended, his family was thrown into a camp and expelled from the country.
38:32They lost everything.
38:34Eric arrived as a refugee in East Germany at 13 years old, with no home, no money, and no future.
38:41But Eric didn't give up.
38:43He studied metalwork, then design, and became a professor.
38:48In 1969, the East German government asked him to create a clock for the republic's anniversary.
38:56124 volunteers built it, working through the nights.
38:59A clock that showed the time of the entire world, in a country that wouldn't let its people leave.
39:05And the most incredible part, is what's hidden inside.
39:08The mechanism that spins this 16-ton clock, is a gearbox from a Trabant.
39:14The iconic car of East Germany.
39:16Today the Weltzeit Tour still stands in Alexanderplatz.
39:19And it's free.
39:21A clock built by a refugee, powered by a piece of the Trabant.
39:25The car that defined a generation in a country that no longer exists.
39:29But the clock keeps turning.
39:31Follow for more stories.
39:33In the heart of Berlin, stands Europe's second largest department store.
39:36But behind its luxury, hides one of the city's darkest stories.
39:41In 1907, a Jewish man named Adolf Jandorf opened the doors of Kadewe.
39:48Born into a poor family, he had already built six successful stores across Berlin.
39:52And Kadewe became his masterpiece, where even the King of Siam spent a fortune in just two days.
39:59Adolf Jandorf never saw what happened next.
40:02He died in 1932.
40:03When the Nazis rose to power his family was hunted down.
40:07Their belongings auctioned off.
40:09His wife fled to Holland.
40:11His son escaped to Los Angeles.
40:13They never returned.
40:15And the store?
40:16It was handed to Gorg Karg, who bought it for almost nothing.
40:20During World War II, the Allies bombed Berlin to destroy the Nazi regime.
40:24In 1944, a British bomber was shot down over the city and crashed directly into Kadewe.
40:31Seven crew members died instantly.
40:33The fire consumed the entire building.
40:36The store that Adolf Jandorf built from nothing was reduced to ashes.
40:41Today, Kadewe stands again, now owned by the Charathivat family from Thailand.
40:47Inside you'll find Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Rolex and Hermes across 60,000 square meters of pure luxury.
40:54A store founded by a Jewish businessman stolen by the Nazis, destroyed by a plane crash and still standing in
41:01the heart of Berlin.
41:02You can visit it today.
41:05Carl Friedrich Schinkel lost his father as a child.
41:07He grew up in poverty.
41:09But in 1810, after seeing a painting by Caspar David Friedrich,
41:13he decided he would never be that good of a painter and devoted his life to architecture.
41:19That decision changed everything.
41:22He became the architect of the King of Prussia and received a commission that didn't exist anywhere.
41:27The first museum opened to everyone.
41:30Until then, art was only for the rich.
41:34Schinkel built 18 columns on the facade and hid inside a secret rotunda inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.
41:41A century later, Hitler gave speeches from these very same steps to a million people.
41:46And at the end of the war, a fuel truck exploded in front of the museum, destroying Schinkel's original frescoes
41:53forever.
41:54In 1945, the Soviets stole thousands of artworks and hid them in secret vaults in Moscow.
42:01More than 430 paintings vanished, Caravaggio, Rubens, three Botticellis.
42:08They were never found.
42:09Today, the Altus Museum is fully restored and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
42:14The rotunda is still there, exactly as Schinkel dreamed it almost 200 years ago.
42:20You can visit it on Museum Island in Berlin.
42:23Follow for more hidden stories.
42:25In 1961, the NSA built a secret spy station on top of a hill in Berlin.
42:31It is Teufelsberg.
42:33Inside the domes, American soldiers listened to every Soviet radio signal, military order and phone call.
42:40They worked in secret, 24 hours a day, intercepting thousands of messages that the Soviets never knew were being heard.
42:47When the wall fell in 1989, the soldiers left.
42:51By 1992, the station was completely abandoned.
42:56Investors tried to build hotels and apartments on the hill, but every plan failed.
43:01Millions were lost, the projects collapsed, and the building was left to be swallowed by graffiti and silence.
43:08Today, Teufelsberg is covered in over 400 graffiti works from artists around the world.
43:15You can climb the hill, walk inside the old spy domes, and see Berlin from the spot where America once
43:21listened to its enemies.
43:23You can visit it yourself.
43:25Berlin, 1962.
43:27Only one year after the construction of the wall, Peter Fechter made the decision to escape from Communist Germany to
43:34the other side.
43:35It cost him his life.
43:37Peter was a young bricklayer just 18 years old, trapped in the DDR.
43:42His sister Lise had escaped to the west years before, and he was determined to cross the wall to reunite
43:49with her.
43:49In West Berlin, people could walk right up to the wall and cover it with graffiti.
43:54On the other side, there was a death strip.
43:58Attack dogs, barbed wire and guards with orders to shoot anyone who tried to cross.
44:03But Peter tried.
44:05He and his friend Helmut ran toward the wall.
44:08Helmut made it over.
44:09Peter was shot while climbing.
44:11He fell into no man's land.
44:13For hours he cried for help.
44:15No one could reach him.
44:16Peter never made it to the other side.
44:19Peter died just meters from Checkpoint Charlie, the most famous crossing of the Cold War.
44:24For 28 years this point divided the world in two.
44:28Today, a replica of the guard house stands on Friedrichstrasse where the original once stood.
44:34You can visit it and stand exactly where it all happened.
44:37In the middle of Rau-Galende in Berlin, there's a climbing wall.
44:42But this is no an ordinary wall.
44:44Let me tell you what this really is.
44:46In 1934, an architect named Leo Winkle patented a radical idea.
44:51An above-ground bomb shelter shaped like a cone.
44:55Bombs would slide off the sides instead of exploding on impact.
44:59To test it, they put goats inside and dropped 500 kilo bombs on it.
45:03The goats survived.
45:05They went deaf, but they survived.
45:07They built over 200 across Germany.
45:10The walls were almost 2 meters thick.
45:13Only one was ever destroyed by a direct hit in the entire war.
45:17This one in Berlin held 400 people on small floors connected by wooden stairs.
45:23The rule was simple.
45:24Stay 30 centimeters away from the wall or go deaf from the vibrations.
45:29At the very top, a small viewing tube.
45:31That was the only way to see when it was safe to come out.
45:35After the war, 60% of these towers were demolished.
45:39This one survived.
45:41Today, it's a climbing wall in the middle of Rau-Galende in Berlin.
45:45Same concrete that kept 400 people alive is now just a wall people climb for fun.
45:51Did you know that Berlin's famous Fernse term was in East Berlin?
45:54The communist side, the DDR, built it right here in the heart of their territory.
46:00Let me tell you why.
46:01In 1965, Walter Ulbricht, the leader of East Germany, ordered the tallest structure in the country built at Alexanderplatz.
46:11A giant symbol of communist superiority visible from every corner of West Berlin.
46:17They demolished an entire neighborhood to make room.
46:20They used Swedish steel because their own wasn't good enough.
46:23They went four times over budget, all to prove that their system was better.
46:28But then something happened that nobody planned.
46:31When the sun hits the steel sphere, it creates a giant cross visible from both sides of the city.
46:38The atheist communist government had built the biggest cross in Berlin.
46:43West Berliners called it the Pope's Revenge.
46:46Can you see the cross?
46:47This was a big deal.
46:49The East German government was destroying churches and ripping crosses off buildings across the country.
46:55They wanted to erase religion completely.
46:58Today, the tower still stands.
47:00The cross still appears every time the sun comes out.
47:03And you can go up there yourself.
47:07368 meters above Berlin.
47:09The best view in the city.
47:11It's not cheap, though.
47:13$25.50 for adults, $14.50 for kids.
47:16But come on.
47:17A communist tower with a holy cross and a view of the entire city?
47:22Worth every cent.
47:24Next time you're in Berlin, go check it out.
47:26You won't regret it.
47:27This is Kaiser Wilhelm I.
47:30Walking through the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles after the biggest victory of his life.
47:35Let me tell you what happened here.
47:37In 1871, this man destroyed France.
47:41The most powerful country in Europe.
47:44And instead of going home, he walked into their palace and crowned himself emperor.
47:50Right in front of the French generals.
47:52When Wilhelm died, his grandson built a giant church in Berlin with bells made from French cannons.
47:59A permanent insult.
48:00But in 1918, Germany lost World War I.
48:05And guess where they made them sign the surrender?
48:08The same room.
48:10The Hall of Mirrors.
48:12Revenge.
48:14The grandson fled to Holland.
48:16The empire fell.
48:18The church still stands in Berlin.
48:21Broken by British bombs during World War II.
48:24The city wanted to demolish it, but the people said no.
48:28Today you can still see the mosaics inside.
48:32The face of the crown prince who waited his whole life for a throne that never came.
48:36In 1902, Berlin built a train station in a neighborhood called Kreuzberg.
48:42Under the tracks they put a public toilet.
48:45For decades workers stopped here on their way home.
48:48Then came the wars.
48:49Then came the wall.
48:51For 28 years this neighborhood was trapped.
48:54The Berlin Wall surrounded it on three sides.
48:56This was one of the poorest corners of West Berlin.
48:59The toilet was forgotten.
49:01In 2003 the wall was gone.
49:04But the toilet was still here.
49:06Empty.
49:07Abandoned.
49:08A man walked past and saw something nobody else did.
49:11He wanted to sell burgers inside.
49:14Everyone said no.
49:15The city said no.
49:16It took him three years to get permission.
49:19In 2006, Burgermeister finally opened.
49:22The first customers laughed.
49:24Then they tasted the burger.
49:26Today this toilet has lines around the block.
49:29Tourists come from everywhere.
49:31A building that survived 100 years of history is now a Berlin legend.
49:36And yes, you can still see the old bathroom signs on the wall.
49:40Germany started three wars in seven years and won all of them.
49:44But here's the thing.
49:46Germany didn't even exist yet.
49:47It was a kingdom called Prussia fighting to become a country.
49:51They crushed Denmark, then Austria, then France.
49:54By 1871, Germany was born.
49:58To celebrate, they built a giant golden angel in Berlin and pointed her directly at France.
50:04Forever staring at the country, they humiliated.
50:07Hitler moved the statue in 1938 because it blocked his plans.
50:11That accidentally saved it.
50:14Bombs destroyed the original spot.
50:16After the war, France begged to demolish it.
50:18The answer was no, it still stands.
50:21The angel still faces west.
50:23150 years later, Germany still won't let France forget.
50:27Follow for more.
50:28This hill in Berlin is made of 400,000 destroyed buildings.
50:32And there's a secret buried underneath.
50:35After World War II, Berlin was in ruins.
50:38For 22 years, women piled millions of tons of rubble right here, creating this 120 meter hill.
50:45But nobody knew there was a building underneath.
50:48A 1930s military school that was too strong to demolish.
50:53So they just buried it.
50:55Years later, the Americans realized this was the highest point in West Berlin.
51:00Perfect for spying on the Soviets.
51:02So they built a listening station on top.
51:05Now it's abandoned.
51:06A spy station, on top of a buried school, on top of the ashes of a destroyed city.
51:11.
51:12.
51:12.
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