The Fernsehturm in central Berlin was constructed between 1965 and 1969 by the GDR, or East Germany, as both a functional broadcasting facility and a symbol of Communist power.

It is also the meeting place of the Federal Convention, which elects the President of Germany. The Neo-Renaissance building was constructed between 1884 and 1894

This piece of wall is a reminder of the beginning of the endo of the communist regime in Eastern Europe. It is a gift from the Sejm, the Polish parliament, to the German Bundestag. It is part of the very wall that Lech Walesa climbed over on 14 August 1980 to organise the strike that led to the birth of the ‘Solidarnosc’ trade union. It developed into a popular movement which successfully challenged the martial law enforced in 1981, set in motion the process of democratisation in Poland and thus helped to end the division of Europe and bring about the fall of the wall in Berlin.

In the Soviet occupation zone, the SPD and KPD were forcibly united in 1946 to form the Socialist Unity Party (SED). On October 7th, the ‘Constitution of the German Democratic Republic’ comes into force. Although the constitution contains a fundamental commitment to civil rights and democracy, as well as constitutional and federal elements, the political reality soon looks different; the states are dissolved in 1952 and in 1968. The SED’s sole claim to leadership is also legally secured through a new socialist constitution. The popular uprising on June 17, 1953 and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 already showed the political reality of the SED dictatorship.

When Berlin was divided into East and West, the former military checkpoint was controlled by the Americans. Only foreigners, employees of the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany in the GDR and GDR officials were allowed to cross the border here.

Also known as the Holocaust memorial; established May 10, 2005. Designed by architect Peter Eisenman and Buro Happold it consists of a 1.9 hectare site covered with 2711 concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field.