Pariser Platz - Berlin, Germany
N 52° 30.984 E 013° 22.728
33U E 389992 N 5819711
Pariser Platz is a large public square in the center of Berlin, Germany, situated by the Brandenburg Gate at the end of the Unter den Linden. The square is named after Paris, France, honoring the anti-Napoleon Allies' occupation of Paris in 1814.
Waymark Code: WMFNTM
Location: Berlin, Germany
Date Posted: 11/10/2012
Views: 105
"Pariser Platz is the square immediately behind the Brandenburg Gate when approaching the centre of Berlin from the Tiergarten in the west. The neo-classical Brandenburg Gate was completed in the early 1790s by Carl Gotthard Langhans. Until 1814 the square was known simply as Quarré or Viereck (the Square). In March 1814, when Prussian troops along with the other Allies captured Paris after the overthrow of Napoleon, it was renamed Pariser Platz to mark this triumph.
The Brandenburg Gate was the main gate in the western side of the Customs Wall that surrounded the city in the eighteenth century, and the Pariser Platz is at the west end of the avenue of Unter den Linden, the ceremonial axis of the city, down which the victorious troops of all regimes from the Hohenzollerns to the German Democratic Republic have marched in triumph.
Before World War II, Pariser Platz was the grandest square in Berlin, flanked by the American and French embassies, the finest hotel (the Adlon Hotel), the Academy of the Arts, and several blocks of apartments and offices.
During the last years of World War II, all of the buildings around the square were turned to rubble by air raids and heavy artillery bombardment. The only structure left standing in the ruins of Pariser Platz was the Brandenburg Gate, which was restored by the East Berlin and West Berlin governments. After the war and especially with the construction of the Berlin Wall, the square was laid waste and became part of the death zone dividing the city.
When the city was reunited in 1990, there was broad consensus that the Pariser Platz should be made into a fine urban space again. The embassies would move back, the hotel and arts academy would be reinstated, and prestigious firms would be encouraged to build round the square. Under the rules of reconstruction, eaves heights had to be 22 meters, and buildings had to have a proper termination against the sky. Stone cladding was to be used as far as possible. Interpretations of these constraints, however, have varied to a great extent." (
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The Pariser Platz is among the most prominent city squares in Berlin. Together with the Brandenburg Gate constructed from 1888 until 1891, it characterizes the western end of the avenue known as Unter den Linden. The square was built based on the plans of the chief building director of royal residences, Philipp Gerlach. Three sites were earmarked for the southern and western expansion of Berlin: the square Pariser Platz, the octagonal Leipziger Platz and the round Belle-Alliance Platz at Hallesches Tor, known today as Mehringplatz. The Pariser Platz was constructed in 1734.
City Garden Director Hermann Mächtig redesigned the square in 1880, adding two ornamental lawn parterres with fountains as festive highlights of the severe lawn parterres composing the two symmetrical halves of the square. The square was destroyed during the Second World War and then became part of the inaccessible border strip from 1961 to 1989. Archaeological excavations of the gardens in the summer of 1992 revealed that, despite heavy encroachment during the German Democratic Republic era, the historic square had retained essential elements of its historical form, including both foundations of the water basins and remnants of the fountain's wreath and ornamental plaster sections. In December of 1992, the open area of Pariser Platz was restored." (
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