Gendarmenmarkt · Bebelplatz · Unter den Linden
The Memory of Mitte
You're about to walk between two twin domes that actually have nothing in common, over a hidden library that lost every one of its books, and face a goddess holding a military emblem high above a gate. Berlin doesn't keep its 20th-century history behind glass: it leaves it carved into the stone, metal and glass of its own streets, right at eye level for anyone who stops to look. It's nearly 5 km, all flat.
“The two churches around you — the Französischer Dom on one side, the Deutscher Dom on the other — weren't born together and don't even share the same floor plan: the French one went up in 1701-1705 for the Huguenot community fleeing France, the German one in 1701-1708 for the Lutheran congregation, each with its own architect. And yet, from where you're standing, their two domed towers are indistinguishable from one another. That's because they were added almost 80 years later, commissioned by the same king and built by the same architect, purely so the square would look symmetrical. Find the year on the sign or information panel by the entrance of either tower: what year were they completed?”
This is what the puzzles are like. The rest unlocks once you start playing.
The playing area
- Access to the full trail for 1 year after purchase
- Built-in hint system if you get stuck
- Printable version, in case you’d rather go phone-free
- No signal needed once the trail has loaded