Day 9: Berlin

My final day in Germany...



The Victory Column was built to commemorate the war victories that Prussia had won over the foreign invaders. The structure used to occupy a site opposite the Reichstag building but it was re-located to accomodate Hitler's monumental plan which comprised of re-designing Berlin into Welthauptstadt Germania. His dream was never realised when Germany entered WWII.



The Reichstag building is the seat of the German parliament. During Hitler's reign, no parliamentary sessions were held but were instead utilised for propaganda and military purposes.



The Brandenburg Gate once formed the impenetrable boundary between East and West Berlin. Many a times, it has been used as a backdrop to stage rallies and processions.



Checkpoint Charlie used to be the former exchange point between East and West Berlin, which was manned by the Americans. It's amazing how one small little guard house can be so much photographed by the tourists.



Sections of the Berlin Wall still remained intact, although much of it had been torn down. I'm skeptical of some souvenir shops selling chunks of the wall. If they were ever the real fragments of the wall, then the amount available will be enough to build a wall longer and mightier than the Great Wall of China.



Berlin offers many jewels despite its utter destruction in the war. Some were beautifully restored and new ones arised from the ashes. I'm lazy to write about the last few pictures as they don't hold much historical values. However, the last picture featured the TV Tower in Alexanderplatz, which is the tallest vintage point in the city.