Berlin: Part 1

This post is the first in a series on Berlin, the capital of Germany, which I recently visited

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I recently returned from a trip to Berlin. It was my first trip to the capital of Germany, and it was an incredible experience. I travelled with two friends and we took the train from London St Pancras to Berlin via various stops including Köln.

The first stop on our itinerary was the Bundestag (the German Parliament). The Bundestag was built in the late 19th century as the Reichstag, the parliament of the German Empire, and later served as the backdrop to Hitler’s rise to power. A fire started in the Reichstag allowed Hitler to remove “communist” MPs and therefore seize complete power (he was already Chancellor). Following the Second World War and the splitting of Germany into East and West, the Reichstag building was not used until reunification in 1990. The formal reunification ceremony was held here, however the German parliament was still meeting in Bonn at the time. It wasn’t until a very close vote that the Bundestag agreed to move to Berlin, into the Reichstag building. It was gutted and given a modern interior by Sir Norman Foster, who also added the now iconic glass dome. We only visited the dome, as full tours of the building are only in German. However, the audio guide tour and permanent exhibition in the dome were excellent, as well as offering great views of the city. British politicans putting off renovating the Houses of Parliament, this is a great example of parliamentary renovation done right!

We then took in the Brandenburg Gate and the Holocaust Memorial, before heading past Checkpoint Charlie and a surviving section of the Berlin Wall. One of the great things about Berlin is that there is history all around; so much has taken a place in and around Berlin that there is lots to see. But Berlin is also home to millions, and in the next post in this series we will talk about Berlin’s infrastructure and how it copes with the six million plus residents living in and around the city.