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From the bright dawn of the Enlightenment to the dark days of dictatorship
With its magnificent buildings, Bebelplatz is one of Berlin’s most attractive public squares – and it has also been the scene of some of the city’s chequered history.
Bebelplatz in the centre of Berlin has seen a lot: from the bright light of the Enlightenment to the dark hours of National Socialism. Even today, it tells you about its eventful history.
Located directly on the grand boulevard Unter den Linden , you can reach Bebelplatz quickly. It is one of the most striking and historically important squares in Berlin. Bebelplatz is home to buildings worth seeing such as the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, St Hedwig's Cathedral, the Hotel de Rome, the Alte Bibliothek, the Alte Palais and the Prinzessinnenpalais.
The square was originally called Platz am Opernhaus, later Kaiser-Franz-Joseph-Platz.
In 1947, the authorities named it after the SPD politician August Bebel.
The rectangular, fully paved square was created in 1740 after the old Berlin city fortifications were demolished. At the request of Frederick II, the architect von Knobelsdorff planned a new complex in the centre of Berlin, the Forum Fridericianum. The new square is to become the centre of the Forum Fridericianum with the opera house, academy building and royal city palace. However, von Knobelsdorff was unable to complete the original plans. Initially, only the opera building was built, whereupon the site was given the name Opernplatz. The Catholic St Hedwig's Cathedral has stood behind the State Opera since the late 18th century, while the Royal Library and the Old Palace are built on the west side.
On 10 May 1933, Opernplatz went down in history in an inglorious way. Members of the National Socialist German Student Union throw important works of world literature into the fire during a major book burning. Works by authors such as Heinrich and Thomas Mann, Erich Kästner, Stefan Zweig, Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx and Kurt Tucholsky are burnt. Many of the writers who were reviled as decadent and un-German had already left Germany by this time and gone into exile.
Did you know that Erich Kästner watched unrecognised in the crowd as his books were burned?
Our App ABOUT BERLIN presents the story behind the book burning and many other exciting stories about Berlin's history.
The book burning has been commemorated since 1995 by Micha Ullmann. The underground Memorial to the Memory of the Book Burning shows a library with empty shelves set into the ground, which can be viewed through a plastic pane in the centre of Bebelplatz.
The inscription quotes Heinrich Heine: "That was just a prelude, where you burn books, you end up burning people too."
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