The History of Unter der Linden

The linden trees lining this boulevard have watched empires rise and collapse. Unter den Linden was once the proudest street in imperial Berlin, so famous that the 1927 Baedeker travel guide devoted nearly 50 pages to it alone.

Standing here, you are surrounded by layers of history. The Brandenburg Gate at the far end, topped by the bronze Quadriga chariot, originally celebrated Prussian victory over Napoleon's France. Pariser Platz in front of it was named after Paris fell to Prussian forces in 1814. Every stone here carries a political statement.

Not everything survived. World War II left this boulevard in ruins, its palaces and cultural landmarks deliberately targeted in so-called Baedeker bombings aimed at destroying iconic sites. The Hotel Adlon, which opened in 1907 as one of Europe's grandest luxury hotels, survived the bombing raids but was set ablaze in 1945 by drunken Soviet soldiers raiding its famous wine cellar.

A little further along stands the Neue Wache, a small neoclassical guardhouse that has quietly changed meaning with every regime. Today it serves as Germany's central memorial to war victims, sheltering Käthe Kollwitz's sculpture of a grieving mother holding her dying son.