Die Neue Wache

Die Neue Wache was built between 1816 and 1818 by Friedrich Wilhelm III as a guard house for the royalty who occupied the Berliner Stadtschloss - the castle next door. It was also conceived as a memorial for those soldiers who had died during the Napoleonic Wars. Since then, it's been rededicated a number of times to commemorate other events: In 1931 it became a memorial to soldiers who died in WWI; in 1960 it became a Mahnmal (a memorial of a negative event to warn future generations) for the victims of fascism and militarism; finally in 1993 it became what it is today, a general memorial for the victims of war and tyranny.For me, Schinkel's design is interesting because of what's decorated and what's not. You can see in the photo of the portico below that the pediment is adorned with a bas-relief of warring Greek gods. On the architrave, where here there are only hooks, there would normally be smaller reliefs of angels. By and large, as a neoclassical design, the building is rather bare when compared to other versions of classicism. What's interesting here, though, is how decorated the columns are. As befits a militaristic, Schinkel chose to use Doric columns, the most simple and the most robust of the orders.
Notice the column capitals. They have a number of very small ribs below the echinus, or topmost molding. They also have a series of three or four cuts on the shaft (where, in a Roman Doric column the astragal would be placed) where normally only one cut would exist.Lastly, the column base is interesting because it actually has something like a base - normally, the flutes of Doric columns simply hit the plinth.
Since 1993, in the interior sits a sculpture by Käthe Kollwitz (enlarged from her original) below the oculus, which was added in 1931.