 In 1943, the square was heavily bombed and most of the area was destroyed.After World War II the square experienced massive reconstruction when it became the quasi-symbolic centre of West Berlin in compensation for the loss of the historic centre around Alexanderplatz and Unter den Linden in Mitte, then part of East Berlin.In 1947 the square was given the new name 'Breitscheidplatz' after Rudolf Breitscheid, a German Social Democrat who was killed at the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1944.