The Neue Wache has been the central memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany since 1993.
The building was constructed from 1816 to 1818 to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel for the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm III., as a memorial for those who fell in the Napoleonic wars. From 1818 to 1918, the royal guard was housed in this building. In 1931, Heinrich Tessenow created a "Memorial for Those Who Fell in the Great War" here. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, the building was badly damaged by bombs. From 1960, the restored building was the GDR's "Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism", and an eternal flame burned in the center of the chamber. In 1969, the remains of an unknown soldier and an unknown prisoner from a concentration camp were laid to rest here, surrounded by soil taken from the killing fields of the Second World War and from the concentration camps. Until 1990, the changing of the guard of honor took place in front of the memorial every Wednesday. After reunification, the Neue Wache became the "Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Victims of War and Tyranny": the vague formulation of this designation gave rise to considerable protests. The centre of the chamber is now occupied by the enlarged (and consequently also controversial) sculpture "Mother with dead son" by Käthe Kollwitz.