Germany

Berlin

The Jewish Museum

It is the most significant example of contemporary architecture in Berlin. The plans drawn up by the architect Daniel Libeskind are realized alongside the yellow, baroque building of the Berlin Museum, which also serves as the entrance to the Jewish Museum. The form and style of the building embody a complex concept full of ciphers, codes and philosophical themes. The silvery, steel-clad building, with its sheer, apparently windowless exterior, is reminiscent of a broken Star of David.

The home towns of famous Jews are linked together into a matrix which forms the structure of the building. Inside, in addition to the exhibition rooms, there is the windowless Holocaust Tower. Outside, in the Garden of Exile, pillars on a slope mirror the isolation and loss of orientation experienced by those forced to live in exile. The main axis, the void, cuts a swathe through the different sections: it signifies the empty, invisible aspects of Jewish history.The Jewish museum was opened to the public in January 1999 and generated a great deal of interest until it was closed at the start of 2001 to allow the installation of the exhibitions. The exhibition which was opened in September 2001 recounts the history and life of German Jews.

Checkpoint Charlie

Numerous legends and agent stories are told about Checkpoint Charlie. The former border crossing point between East and West Berlin was the place where Soviet and American tanks stood face to face, after the construction of the Wall in 1961. From 1961 to 1990, Checkpoint Charlie in Friedrichstasse, was the only border crossing point for the Allies, foreigners, employees of the Permanent Representation and officials of the GDR. Today, the checkpoint is commemorated by a border sign and a soldier's post. The museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie tells the history of the Wall.

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The Jewish Museum