For the time change, BZ explains Berlin’s most beautiful and most famous clocks

In the night to Sunday the clock is turned again. Summer time, although most Europeans – according to a survey 87 (!) percent – are against it. Since 2018, the EU has not been able to get rid of the unloved back and forth of time.

Sunday is therefore turned forward again from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m., we lose an hour of sleep.

In the past, Berliners didn’t care. In the Middle Ages they didn’t even have clocks. You got up with the sun and went to bed soon after sunset (candles were expensive).

Replica of the first traffic light on Potsdamer Platz with clock (Photo: picture alliance / Wolfram Kastl)
Replica of the first traffic light on Potsdamer Platz with clock (Photo: picture alliance / Wolfram Kastl)

The first clocks visible to all hung on church towers. In 1715 the Parochial Church got a carillon. The 37 bronze bells jingled every hour, the Berliners christened them “Singuhr”.

The clock in Charlottenburg Palace has been running since 1770 (Photo: picture alliance / imageBROKER)
The clock in Charlottenburg Palace has been running since 1770 (Photo: picture alliance / imageBROKER)

The medieval Berlin City Hall only got a clock tower around 300 years ago. With the railway, the local time was replaced by the normal time, only since 1893 was the time everywhere in Prussia the same.

Sundial in the Volkspark Wilmersdorf (1937) (Photo: ullstein bild)
Sundial in the Volkspark Wilmersdorf (1937) (Photo: ullstein bild)

The Berliner set his pocket watch according to the normal clock at the train station or post office. You could also call the “Miss from the office” to ask about the exact time.

The water clock of flowing time in the Europa Center, erected in 1982 (Photo: picture alliance / Eibner-Presse)
The water clock of flowing time in the Europa Center, erected in 1982 (Photo: picture alliance / Eibner-Presse)

Many curiosities also made the rounds. 90 years ago in Berlin you saw a clock that went counterclockwise.

90 years ago: This clock went counterclockwise and still showed the correct time (Photo: ullstein bild)
90 years ago: This clock went counterclockwise and still showed the correct time (Photo: ullstein bild)

The “Set Theory Clock” has stood on the Kudamm since 1975. It shows (top to bottom) lightbars for 5 hours, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 1 minute. The second flashes above, today on Budapester Strasse.

The Berlin “Set Theory Clock” is now at the Europa Center. In the photo it is 11.08 a.m. (Photo: picture alliance / picture agency-o)

Last but not least, the meeting place on the Alex since 1969 is the listed world time clock. On it 146 places, each of the 24 sides corresponds to one of the main time zones of the earth.

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