Potsdamer Platz is an important public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin. It is named after the city of Potsdam, some 25 km (16 mi) to the southwest, and marks the point where the old road from Potsdam passed through the city wall of Berlin at the Potsdam Gate. After developing within the space of little over a century from an intersection of rural thoroughfares into the most bustling traffic intersection in Europe, it was totally destroyed during World War II and then left desolate during the Cold War era when the Berlin Wall bisected its former location.
Since German reunification, Potsdamer Platz has been the site of major redevelopment projects.