William Villalobos
The Brandenburg Gate stands in the heart of Berlin, an icon through good times and bad. In Berlin's pre-war heyday, the gate marked the western extremity of the "main street," Unter den Linden, before becoming a symbol of a divided city when the structure was integrated into the Berlin Wall.
Like so much of the city, the Berliner Dom (Berlin's pre-eminent cathedral), was ravaged in the war. Now restored, it features a magnificent wall altar and stained glass windows. The tombstones of Prussian royals are displayed in the crypt.
The Reichstag is the home of the country's parliament since Germany's reunification in 1990. The neo-Renaissance building is crowned by a new glass dome designed by Sir Norman Foster. Take an elevator ride to the top, where a sweeping vista of Berlin opens before you.
Vibrant graffiti works, from spacemen to the politically-charged Bruderkuss (Brotherly Kiss), capture the imagination at the East Side Gallery, a preserved section of the infamous Berlin Wall.
Peter Eisenman was the architect who designed Berlin's controversial Holocaust Memorial, filled with claustrophobic pathways through great slabs of concrete. The American architect deliberately placed many of the dark gray slabs, with their knife-sharp edges, off-kilter, evoking tombstones in an unkempt graveyard.
Communist stars are for sale alongside American flags in one of the city's flea markets. This divided history is visible all over the city but helps contribute to a forward-looking outlook that makes modern Berlin Germany's most cosmopolitan city.