Humboldt University

Further on the right, we pass the Humboldt University. But wait, this may not be the right way to view this square, the surroundings of this square. Then we lose ourselves in details - well, let's call Humboldt a detail - while it's about the whole here. Let's bring the history of this square into the picture, that clarifies things. Frederick the Great - speaking of clarifying: most kings of Germany were named Frederick, you have Frederick I through IX, and there are a few Holy Roman Emperors named Frederick, but we don't mean those. Here we are talking about a later series of Fredericks, and the middle one was Frederick II, better known as Frederick the Great, King of the expanding Prussia from 1740 to 1786.

Frederick the Great did love Berlin, unlike Adolf Hitler two centuries later. He wanted to leave his mark on the city, to beautify the city. He succeeded in this with the realization of the so-called Forum Fredericianum. Forum, which is Latin, originally means 'market square', all this modeled after Roman examples. So: all the buildings around this square are part of the Forum, starting with the Humboldt University [64]. The Humboldt is housed in a former palace of Frederick the Great's brother. The intention was to ultimately turn this palace into a university. That did not happen due to royal family circumstances; it became a university. In front of the academic building, there are marble statues of the brothers Alexander and Wilhelm Humboldt, the founders of the university. In front of the entrance to the building, there is usually a lively bustle of book stalls.

Toineke