[POTUS]

The picture of the City Palace (Stadtschloss) is interesting. It looks like they accidentally swapped the old and the new picture. The building is complete in 1939 and far from finished in 2015. Upon further research (Ok, I wiki'd it) I found out the original building had been knocked down to make way for parking in 2008 and only 5 years later in 2013 they decided to start rebuilding it.

[ibuildthings]

The site has an interesting history. The former Stadtschloss suffered serious destruction during WWII ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Palace,_Berlin ) and the Communist East tore it completely down to build the Palace of the Republic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_the_Republic,_Berlin and acted as the hub of DDR government. Once the wall fell, and DDR disintegrated, in 2008 DDR's Palace of Republic was almost completed demolished, and work on new Stadtschloss which very much resembles the original commenced.

[smazga]

I hope they intend to add back the decoration. Comparing the photos the old building had character, but the new one is all blocks and smooth faces.

[oceanofsolaris]

Well, there is a bit missing in this story. The City Palace was actually demolished during the GDR time and replaced by the "Palast der Republik" (the palace of the republic). This Palace of the Republic (which did not really look like a palace very much) was then torn down in 2008 to make place for a reconstruction of the pre-GDR building.

I think it is a bit sad that Germany does not leave more GDR-era buildings standing. They might not always be the most visually appealing buildings (just like the GDR was not a very appealing state in many regards), but they still represent an important part of Germanys history.