Theme Week Berlin – Alexanderplatz and Gendarmenmarkt
13 November 2010 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General, Architecture, Berlin Reading Time: 12 minutes
© bilderbook.org
The Alex to Berliners, a cattle market in the Middle Ages, a military parade square and an exercise ground for nearby barracks until the mid 19th century – Alexanderplatz is the square named to honour Alexander I, Tsar of Russia, on his visit to Berlin in 1805. It was here that Alfred Döblin took the pulse of the cosmopolitan metropolis portrayed in his 1929 novel “Berlin Alexanderplatz” filmed by Fassbinder for a TV series as a portrait of the bustling city in the 1920s before the imminent Nazi takeover. Fast forward to more recent times, one million people congregated here, on 4 November 1989 to demonstrate against the GDR regime shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. This was the largest anti-government demonstration in its history. read more…
