This is the front of the Alte Bibliothek in what is now Bebelplatz. It was here that the books of ideological opponents: outlawed by the Nazis were symbolically burnt in 1933. This location was chosen to give the impression of approval of the academic society to this act of literary suppression.

There is an interesting sculpture to this act in the ground in the centre of the square. The building at the far end of the square is not in any of the guide-books, but it houses an excellent scale-model of Frederick the Great's Berlin.