Description & Facts: Travel Guide, Destination Germany: Berlin - Alexanderplatz / Fernsehtrum (TV Tower). • Die besten, schönsten, interessantesten und beliebtesten Reiseziele, Urlaubsziele, Sehenswürdigkeiten in Deutschland: Berlin - Alexanderplatz / Fernsehturm. --- Alexanderplatz is a large public square and transport hub in the Mitte (city centre) district of Berlin, near the river Spree and the Berliner Dom. Berliners often call it simply Alex, referring to a larger neighborhood stretching from Mollstraße in the northeast to Spandauer Straße and the City Hall in the southwest. Originally a cattle market, it was named in honor of a visit of the Russian Emperor Alexander I to Berlin on 25 October 1805. It gained a prominent role in the late 19th century with the construction of the station of the same name and a nearby public market, becoming a major commercial center. Its heyday was in the 1920s, when together with Potsdamer Platz it was at the heart of Berlin's nightlife, inspiring the 1929 novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (see 1920s Berlin) and the two films based thereon, Piel Jutzi's 1931 film and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 15 1/2 hour second adaptation, released in 1980. The Alexanderplatz has been subject to redevelopment several times in its history, most recently during the 1960s, when it was enlarged as part of the German Democratic Republic's redevelopment of the city center. It is surrounded by several notable structures including the Fernsehturm (TV