Time to go black and white again. This time we will head over to Potsdamer Platz, one of the most sad examples of the destruction of Berlin. Before the war this used to be one of the liveliest places in Berlin. It was an important public square and a major traffic intersection. It had lots of shops and houses. Potsdamer Platz is located about 1 km (1,100 yd) south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), and close to the southeast corner of the Tiergarten park. It is named after the city of Potsdam, some 25 km (16 mi) to the south west, and marks the point where the old road from Potsdam passed through the city wall of Berlin at the Potsdam Gate.
The allied bombings were heavy here. Potsdamer Platz was more or less completely ruined. After the war it was left desolate and later on the Berlin wall stretched through the area. Large no mans land areas stretched through the area.
As you can see the area is wide open and torn apart by the wall. The old style house to the upper left is the side of the state parliament of Berlin (Abgeordnetenhaus) that I have written about in an older post.
Here you can see roughly the same area today, on Google Maps:
Show larger map
Below you can see an old picture of how Potsdamer Platz could look like before the destuction:
Potsdamer Platz is now rebuilt, with several houses with interesting modern architecture. The place has again become an important traffic intersection and where the wall once tore the place apart there are now again people and shops.
Below you can see the Sony Center house from below and night time.
And finally the back side of the card:
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