Bebelplatz

On the night of May 10, 1933, Nazi students and party members burned tens of thousands of books by Jewish, socialist, and other 'un-German' authors on this square, an event now marked by Israeli artist Micha Ullman's haunting memorial, a glass panel set into the cobblestones looking down onto empty white shelving, sized to hold exactly the number of books destroyed. The square itself is flanked by grand institutions including the Berlin State Opera and Humboldt University's law faculty, giving the memorial added weight given its academic and cultural surroundings. It's easy to walk across without noticing the small glass panel underfoot, so knowing to look down is part of experiencing it properly. A brief but sobering stop that fits naturally into a walk along nearby Unter den Linden.