Berlin, November 4th, 2026 (The Berlin Spectator) – Gendarmenmarkt is one of the most impressive spots in Berlin. Countless tourists admire every detail of it all day long.
There is a lot to see. Many squares in the former Eastern Block, iuncluding the GDR, are empty or ugly or both. Gendarmenmarkt is the exact opposite. It is home to these buildings:
> The French Cathedral: Frederick the Great commissioned the architect Carl Philipp Christian von Gontard to erect this building of historic importance from 1780 to 1785. Founded in 1672 by French reformed Christians, Huguenots who were religious refugees, the French Church is connected to the French Cathedral. They were allowed to settle in Brandenburg starting in 1685. Decades after World War II, from 1978 to 1983, the French Cathedral was rebuilt.
> The New Church or German Cathedral is located on the opposite side of Gendarmenmarkt and mirrors the French Cathedral, meaning it looks almost exactly the same. It was built by the same architect, completed in the same year, 1785, and rebuilt from 1983 to 1996 in both the GDR and reunified Germany.
> The Konzerthaus Berlin, formerly known as Schauspielhaus Berlin, is used as a concert hall. It has been flanked by the German Cathedral and the French Church since Karl Friedrich Schinkel completed the building between them in 1821.
Schiller’s Return
The two cathedrals and the concert hall give Gendarmenmarkt the character it is known for today. But so do the details of this square. They include the Schiller Monument. Inaugurated in 1871, it features several allegories, including those of history, poetry, philosophy and tragedy.
One interesting detail is the fact that part of the Schiller Monument was displayed at West Berlin’s Lietzenseepark from 1951 until 1986. When a cultural agreement between the democratic Federal Republic of Germany and the communist German Democratic Republic was signed, Friedrich Schiller’s return to his spot, right in front of the Konzerthaus, became possible. It happened in 1988, a year before the Berlin Wall came down and two years before Germany’s reunification.
The Overall Picture
The buildings around Gendarmenmarkt are part of the overall picture too. In the 1980s, the GDR constructed some prefabricated ones there, which can hardly be identified as such, meaning they are the opposite of what the Germans call “Plattenbau”, those ugly apartment blocks that were spread all over the Warsaw Pact’s turf.
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Those more elaborate and stylish prefabricated buildings at Charlottenstrasse, and on the other side of Gendarmenmarkt, have their charm as well, and their place in history. That is why they were placed under monument protection, along with the 1980s design of the square, in 2021.
Berliners can look at the spot with pride, if all the tourists on site even let them near it.
An earlier version of this piece was published on The Berlin Spectator in 2021.
