Named after Potsdamer Platz, the square outside the old gate on the road to Potsdam.
The Potsdamer Tor was built in 1734 in the customs and excise wall; the road to Potsdam began there, and the square west of the gate got its present name in 1831. Until the end of the Second World War it was one of Europe's busiest traffic hubs; from 1961 the Berlin Wall ran across it. The U-Bahn station, opened as Leipziger Platz, has been called Potsdamer Platz since 1923.