Gendarmenmarkt

Gendarmenmarkt in central Berlin was laid out in 1688 as part of the Friedrichstadt city extension and from 1799 took its name from the Gens d'armes cuirassier regiment whose stables once stood here. Three buildings dominate the strictly symmetrical ensemble: Schinkel's Neoclassical Konzerthaus of 1821, built on the foundations of Langhans's burned National Theatre, and the French and German Domes, the first the Huguenot refugee church, the second the Lutheran parish church, each crowned by an identical drum dome added in 1785. The square was heavily destroyed in the Second World War and meticulously rebuilt between 1976 and 1993. It now hosts the Classic Open Air concerts, the WeihnachtsZauber Christmas market and the annual Bambi awards ceremony. Reinhold Begas's Schiller statue stands on the central axis.