Neue Wache

The Neue Wache stands at Unter den Linden 4, in the middle of the Forum Fridericianum, the grand ensemble of buildings between Humboldt University, the State Opera and the old arsenal. Karl Friedrich Schinkel built it from 1816 to 1818 in the neoclassical style, originally as a guardhouse for the royal palace next door. Its severe temple front with Doric columns counts among Schinkel's most important early works and still shapes the look of the boulevard.

The building has served as a memorial since 1931. It burned out in World War II and was rebuilt between 1951 and 1957. After reunification, the Federal Republic turned the interior in 1993 into the country's central memorial to the victims of war and tyranny. In the middle of the bare room, open to the sky through an oval in the ceiling, stands an enlarged copy of Käthe Kollwitz's sculpture "Mother with her Dead Son," on which rain, snow and daylight fall through the opening.

A visit usually takes only a few minutes, but it stays with you. The plain interior with its single pietà feels unusually concentrated and quiet in the middle of a busy downtown. It fits naturally into a walk along Unter den Linden, past Bebelplatz, the State Opera and Museum Island. If you go inside, take a moment with the inscription at the entrance and the sculpture itself.