Old Market Square and Friendship Island

This area along the Havel river not only was the origin of the town, but also the historic city center until its destruction during World War II. The Old Market was the architectural center. The Stadtschloss (City Palace), Rathaus (town hall) and Nikolaikirche (Nikolai Church) established important architectural accents to which the rest of the city was connected. The church and the Old Town Hall were reconstructed after WWII, but the ruins of the City Palace were torn down in 1960.

Parliament Building

The seat of the Brandenburg state parliament (since 1991) is located on the Brauhausberg (Brewery Hill), south of Potsdam's main station.
The building was erected between 1899 and 1902 in the style of English country houses, and the Low German Renaissance as the Imperial War School for the training of elite troops. After the WWI, the Reichsarchiv (Imperial Archives) with the collections of the former war archives moved in. It was subordinated to the Reichswehr (German Army) High Command, camouflaged as a civilian office, and continued the work of war history documentation the Imperial General Staff began. Structural changes occurred in the building in 1937, as it was used as a military archive: a wing for periodicals was added, and the height of the tower was reduced. After 1945, the building served as the seat of the Bezirks- und Kreisleitung of the SED (the district and regional headquarters of the Socialist Unity Party). Newly-constructed wings and further modifications to the tower changed the structure so much that the original form can no longer be recognized. The façade of the building is under historic preservation status today.

If you exit the Potsdam main station to the west, you can go across the Babelsberger Straße, along the Lange Brücke (Long bridge), to arrive on Friendship Island.