Neue Wache

The Neue Wache (English: New Watchhouse) is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic centre of Berlin, Germany. Erected from 1816 to 1818 according to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel as a guardhouse for the Royal Palace and a memorial to the Liberation Wars, it is considered a major work of Prussian Neoclassical architecture. A Victoria pedimental sculpture by Johann Gottfried Schadow and five General statues by Christian Daniel Rauch, referring to the Warrior statues on Schlossbrücke, also belong to the ensemble. Since 1931, it has held Germany's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and national memorial for the First World War. Following German Reunification, the site has also been, since 1993, the Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Victims of War and Tyranny. Neue Wache is famous for its changing of the guard ceremony, which went unchanged throughout the 20th century despite radical changes to the German political system. Neue Wache, though, no longer has a regular honor guard except during special events. The modern changing of the guard lacks the goose step once continued by the East German Army, but is otherwise nearly identical to the old ceremony.