Located close to St. Mary's Church, the Red Town Hall ( Rotes Rathaus) is a Northern Italian Renaissance style structure featuring a striking red-brick facade and a tall clock tower.
It was designed by Architect Hermann Friedrich Waesemann, and constructed between 1861 and 1869.
Towards the end of WWII, this building was severely bombed. By the end of the fighting in May 1945, roughly 50% of the building lay in ruins or was severely gutted.
As a miracle, despite the heavy destruction, the core outer shell remained standing. It was meticulously rebuilt to its original design. and later served as the city hall for East Berlin.
The term "RED Town Hall" took on a dual, symbolic meaning during this era. Locals used it to refer both to the red-brick facade and to the socialist GDR administration ruling from inside it.
Now the Neptune Fountain: Construction began in 1888, officially completed and unveiled in 1891 as a grand gift from the city of Berlin to Kaiser Wilhelm II, installed at the Berlin Palace.
The palace was so heavily damaged during WWII, that in 1951, the East German Government demolished it. The fountain was carefully dismantled, put away, and later underwent extensive restoration.
In 1969, as part of the redesign of East Berlin's central core, the fountain was rebuilt at its current location in the park landscape between the Red Town Hall and St. Mary's Church.