Bebelplatz

The Bebelplatz is a square in Berlin's district of Mitte. It is bordered by the Behrenstraße, the garden of Prinzessinnenpalais, the Old Library, the Old Palace and the boulevard Unter den Linden and was built in the years 1741 to 1743 as a place at the Opera House. He formed the central axis of the intended forum Fridericianum. From 1910 to 1947, he was named Kaiser- Franz- Joseph-Platz after the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I. The original building was largely destroyed in the Second World War and in the postwar period replaced in large part by new buildings with historical facades. The ensemble is named after August Bebel since August 31, 1947 the square is now a protected monument. In extending the boulevard Unter den Linden from the monument of Frederick II to the Castle Bridge in 1937 the northern part of the square was included by name in this stretch of road, so that the uniformly named place since the two places is perceived east and west of the Opera House.

The then colloquially called Opera Square Square was on 10 May 1933 the main venue of the planned and carried out by the German student body book burning. Some 70,000 students, professors and members of the SA and SS burned books of as " un-German " designated authors, including writings of Sigmund Freud, Erich Kästner, Heinrich Mann, Karl Marx and Kurt Tucholsky. Kästner had gone under the fanatical audience that he " heard the schmaltzy tirades of the small, cunning liar [Note: this is self propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels ]. Funeral weather hung over the city. "

A monument by the Israeli artist Micha Ullman recalls the burning of books: Through a glass bottom plate in the middle of the square you can survey an underground room with empty white bookshelves made ​​of concrete. The unifying exhibition of United Buddy Bears returned after three years of world tour to Berlin and presented in 2006 at Bebelplatz widely around this memorial Sunken library. Since 2010, located by the Israeli author Haim Be'er, the German translation of his novel Bebelplatz ago, in which the space and this monument play a significant role.

Under the square is located since December 2004 in an underground car park for 462 vehicles two floors with direct access to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, which, like the St. Hedwig's Cathedral and the Old Library is located on the square. The carried out in recent times narrowing of the boulevard Unter den Linden, which had developed in this field to the overstressed highway should help to add value to the historical urban space "Forum Fridericianum " again.

Opened in 2006 in the south of the square, the exclusive Hotel de Rome.