This was by FAR my most favorite site in Berlin and I couldn’t wait to see it for myself!

It has a very interesting and ironic history…..read on – source: Wikipedia

In 1964, Walter Ulbricht, leader of the Socialist Unity Party which governed East Germany, decided to allow the construction of a television tower on Alexanderplatz, modelled on the Fernsehturm Stuttgart. IT was intended as a show of the GDR’s strength, while its location is thought to have been deliberately chosen so that it would impose on views of West Berlin’s Reichstag building (when viewed from the front).

And this, in my opinion, is the best part – The Pope’s Revenge.

When the sun shines on the Fernsehturm’s tiled stainless steel dome, the reflection usually appears in the form of a crucifix. This effect was neither predicted nor desired by the planners. As a jibe against the atheist foundations of the Communist government, and the ongoing suppression of church institutions in East Germany, Berliners immediately named the luminous cross Rache des Papstes, or “Pope’s Revenge”.

(insert shameless plug – you can have your very own, limited-edition print of this image by clicking HERE)