Show & Tell: From Below & Berlin

I missed last week's Show & Tell due to my trip to Berlin so I thought I'd show you that city from below. Many of them might not really qualify as photos taken from below but they will have to do! :)

Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche - The ruins of the church in Western Berlin is one of the city's most memorable symbols, but is called "the hollow tooth" by the locals. This neoroman church was named in the honour of Vilhelm I. After having been severely damaged during WWII the church was kept as it was as a memorial. In 1963 a new and modern church designed by Egon Eiermann was opened next to the old church - you can see the modern clock tower here.

The inside still has mosaics picturing scenes from the German empire, including the so-called Hohenzollerm mosaics with the Preussian kings, queens and dukes.

Windows, stairs and mosaics in what is left of the altar room


More from below views of the altar room


The main staircase in the Jüdisches Museum, the Jewish Museum. Daniel Liebeskind designed this new fantastic building for portraying the history of the Jewish people in Germany (or the territory of present-day Germany) over the last 1,000 years. This is a really great museum in its layout and how it tells the story of centuries of Jewish-German relations. It's one of the best museums I've been to, on par with the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. The so-called Holocaust Tower in its own part of the building is a unheated cement room with only natural light from a narrow opening in the ceiling, which is supposed to symbolise a gas chamber (though the architect says it should be interpreted in the mind of the visitor).


The concert hall at Gendarmenmarkt, a "piazza" in Italian renaissance style. The name "Gendarmenmarkt" comes from a regiment, gens d'armes, stationed nearby. The piazza is from the 17th century but the concert hall is from 1818-1821.

One of two domes that surround the concert hall in Gendarmenmarkt, the French and the German cathedrals from the 18th century. There is also a smaller French church in the square, founded by Berlin's Huguenot community, while the German dome was built by German protestants.

One of the domes, don't know if it's the French or the German one.

Underneath the autumn trees in Gendarmenmarkt

The 1.3 km stretch of the Berlin Wall that has been kept and is now East Side Gallery. The artworks were restored this year ahead of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall, usually by the same artists who painted them 20 years ago.

Peter posing in front of the Berlin Dome, the largest and most lavish cathedral in the city, from the late 19th century. We never went inside though but maybe we should have, because I read in the guidebook that it was reopened in 1993 after 40 years of renovation.

Top of the Berlin Dome

From the bottom of the stairs of the Reichstag. The Reichstag was built in the late 19th century by Paul Wallot as a symbol of German power but was subsequently destroyed in a fire in 1933 and during WWII. In 1997-1999 the British architect Sir Norman Foster transformed the building to one of the world's most modern parliamentary buildings - with its famous glass dome - but you wouldn't think so from jut looking at the front.

A happy Peter below Brandenburger Tor. In addition to the Reichstag, Brandenburger Tor is probably the most well-known structure in Berlin. The gateway was erected in 1789-91 with ancient Greece as the model. The Quadriga sculpture on top is a peace symbol but despite its symbolism the gate has been marched through by many a rulers, statesmen, military parades and demonstrators.