What the East Germans called the Palace of the Republic was built across the street from the Berlin Cathedral, on the former site of a war-damaged Prussian palace. When it opened in 1976, it was a showcase for what the Communists thought of as a modern and durable style. By the middle of the next decade, it looked flimsy and dated. It was decommissioned in 1990 as the walls were found to be packed with asbestos and the East German state was succumbing to rot. It enjoyed a brief second life from 2003 to 2005, when the gutted interior was opened to guided tours and art installations. It was shut down for good in 2006 and demolished, not by dynamite or wrecking ball but by patient disassembly so as to avoid damaging the historic neighborhood.

The photographer Thorsten Klapsch made a series of pictures showing the stark exterior and drab interior of the vacant Palace of the Republic. For comparison, consider Wikimedia's century-old aerial photo of the royal palace that was bombed in 1945 and finally torn down by the East German state to build its parliament. Now that the Communist parliament has in turn been demolished, a non-profit foundation established by the German government is soliciting funds to build a partial facsimile of the original Prussian palace. However, Maclean's magazine reports that increasing numbers of Germans indulge in nostalgia for East Germany. They are scolded by others who seek to educate the young about the horrors of the Communist period, as Deutsche Welle reports.