Alexanderplatz

Anyone wanting to experience Berlin must have visited Alexanderplatz ('der Alex'). This is where the whole city comes together. Not only the three U-Bahn lines, the S-Bahn, and the tram, but also about half a million people who change trains here daily and some of whom leave the station to do some shopping.

Alexanderplatz was named in 1805 after Tsar Alexander I, who visited Prussia that year. Due to rapid industrialization, many people moved to the area around the square in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Poverty was rampant. Life on Alexanderplatz and its surroundings was literally on the street. Alfred Döblin beautifully described this in his novel 'Berlin Alexanderplatz'.

The square was heavily damaged in World War II. After the war, it was reconstructed in Soviet style by the GDR. It became a large windy plain surrounded by functionally designed gray buildings.

Since the fall of the wall, there have been many plans for the square. Gradually, something seems to be coming of it. The Galeria Kaufhof, once a plain GDR department store, has been completely renovated and can now compete with the most luxurious department stores. Across the street, Alexa was opened in 2007; a striking shopping center featuring the largest MediaMarkt in Europe. Modern buildings are also rising in other places that should give the square more cachet.

Rickje