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Polar Berlin


Polar Berlin
Photo Information
Copyright: Marc Berger (marque2) Silver Note Writer [C: 1 W: 0 N: 17] (201)
Genre: Places
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2008-07
Categories: Experimental
Camera: Sony Alpha 100 Digital SLR
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2008-07-21 11:39
Viewed: 228
Points: 0
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Breitscheidplatz of West-Berlin under polar coordinates...
Today the Breitscheidplatz lies within Charlottenburg (a region of inner-city Berlin) at the tip of the Tiergarten between the Kurfürstendamm boulevard, the Tauentzienstraße and the Budapester Straße. The Europa-Center closes off the Breitscheidplatz to the East. To the west the Breitscheidplatz ends at the Schimmelpfeng-Haus and the Kantstrasse.Breitscheidplatz was first constructed in 1889 on the former hunting grounds laid down in 1542 by Kurfürst Joachim II. The platz was originally called the Gutenbergplatz after the designer of the printing press and was changed in 1892 to the Augusta-Viktoria-Platz in honor of the German empress. Today it is named after Rudolf Breitscheid, a German Social Democrat, who died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1944.

Shortly after the grounds of the platz were laid, Kaiser Wilhelm II used it as the host for his Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche in honor of his grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm I. The church was a prime example of the neo-romantic style and was constructed by Franz Schwechten, the royal architect of Wilhelm II. Before WWI, the platz experienced further development with exhibition halls, shopping centers and cultural centers.After the first World War the Breitscheidplatz became a meeting place for intellectuals in Berlin, specifically in the Romanisches Cafe (also constructed under Wilhelm II) - where writers, artists and musicians congregated and exchanged ideas. The house was located in the Budapester Straße 53 -now standing in the spot of the Europa-Center.In 1943, the platz was heavily bombed and most of the area was destroyed. After the Second World War, the platz experienced massive reconstruction and became the quasi symbolic center of West Berlin (with the Alexanderplatz being the symbolic platz in East Berlin). The platz took on the new name 'Breitscheidplatz' in 1947 after Rudolf Breitscheid, a German social-democrat who died at Buchenwald. The Gedächtniskirche, (also known as the "Hollow Tooth" by Berliners) was in shambles after the war. It became the unofficial trend of Berlin after the war to tear down the ruins of monuments destroyed by the war and to build new. The renowned West German architect Egon Eiermann commissioned a new monument (which also serves as a functioning church) which was to stand next to the destroyed church. The memorial was completed in 1962 and the almost forgotten church became the architectural pride of West Berlin and a memorial against war and destruction. In 1965, an eighty-six metre high 'Europa Centre' was constructed on the platz. This centre became the main consumer grounds of West Berlin and unofficially gave the Breitscheidplatz the reputation of being the commercial center in West Berlin. The building still stands today and hosts numerous department stores, outside coffee shops and restaurants and is a popular tourist attraction. The Europa center stands under preservation order. The Berlin Zoologischer Garten lies near the Breitscheidplatz, it was constructed in 1882 and functions as the main S- and U-Bahn station within Berlin West. The Breitscheidplatz, now one of the most visited places in Berlin, is known by many as one of the quintessential squares of Berlin. It presents an awkward yet typical Berliner combination of the old and the new, the cultural and commercial.


In mathematics, the polar coordinate system is a two-dimensional coordinate system in which each point on a plane is determined by an angle and a distance. The polar coordinate system is especially useful in situations where the relationship between two points is most easily expressed in terms of angles and distance; in the more familiar Cartesian or rectangular coordinate system, such a relationship can only be found through trigonometric formulation.

As the coordinate system is two-dimensional, each point is determined by two polar coordinates: the radial coordinate and the angular coordinate. The radial coordinate (usually denoted as r) denotes the point's distance from a central point known as the pole (equivalent to the origin in the Cartesian system). The angular coordinate (also known as the polar angle or the azimuth angle, and usually denoted by θ or t) denotes the positive or anticlockwise (counterclockwise) angle required to reach the point from the 0° ray or polar axis (which is equivalent to the positive x-axis in the Cartesian coordinate plane)


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