Neue Wache

The Neue Wache, Berlin, showing the neoclassical facade

The interior of the Neue Wache, showing the Käthe Kollwitz sculpture Mother with her Dead Son and the oculus, which exposes the sculpture to the elements.

The Neue Wache (English: New Guard) is a building in central Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is located on the north side of the Unter den Linden. The Neue Wache was designed by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, was built in 1816 and is a leading example of German neoclassicism. Originally it was built as a guardhouse for the troops of the Crown Prince of Prussia, the building has been used as a war memorial since 1931.

King Frederick William III of Prussia ordered the construction of the Neue Wache as a guard house for the nearby Palace of the Crown Prince, to replace the old Artillery Guard House. He commissioned Schinkel, the leading exponent of neoclassicism in architecture, to design the building: this was Schinkel's first major commission in Berlin.

Other websites

• "The National Memorial to the Victims of War and Tyranny: From Conflict To Consensus", lecture with handout and bibliography by Harold Marcuse, covers history since 1816.
• Neue Wache travel photos by Galen Fry Singer, of facade, sculpture and inscriptions.