The Hansaviertel () is the smallest ''Ortsteil'' (district) of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

and is between

Großer Tiergarten The Tiergarten ( en, Animal Garden; formal German name: ( en, Greater Animal Garden)) is Berlin’s most popular inner-city park, located completely in the district of the same name. The park is in size and is among the largest urban garde ...

and the Spree River, within the central

Mitte Mitte () is the first and most central borough of Berlin. The borough consists of six sub-entities: Mitte proper, Gesundbrunnen, Hansaviertel, Moabit, Tiergarten and Wedding. It is one of the two boroughs (the other being Friedrichshain-Kre ...

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

of Berlin. The district was almost completely destroyed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

but was rebuilt from 1957 to 1961 as a

social housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, d ...

project by international master architects such as

Alvar Aalto Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (; 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, s ...

, Egon Eiermann,

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...

Oscar Niemeyer Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...

, and Sep Ruf. Called '' Interbau'', the whole ensemble has two churches (St. Ansgar and

Kaiser-Friedrich-Gedächtniskirche The Kaiser-Friedrich-Gedächtniskirche ( en, Emperor Frederick Memorial Church) is a German Protestant church owned and used by a congregation within the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. The church building is si ...

). It is now protected as a historic monument.

History

The area's streets are named after "Hansa cities"; cities that were part of the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label= Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...

, a trading network established in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. ''Hansaplatz'', the central square, has a small shopping arcade, a library and the

Grips-Theater The Grips-Theatre in Berlin (official name: GRIPS Theater) is a well-known and well-respected emancipatory children's and youth theatre, located at Altonaer Straße at Hansaplatz in the Hansaviertel in Berlin's Mitte district. It is “the first ...

. Hansaplatz subway station was built in 1957, though the U9 line did not open until 1961. Some Gründerzeit buildings remained north of the Stadtbahn railway. Altonaer Straße, named after the Altona district in Hamburg, leads to the

Victory Column A victory column, or monumental column or triumphal column, is a monument in the form of a column, erected in memory of a victorious battle, war, or revolution. The column typically stands on a base and is crowned with a victory symbol, such as a ...

. Bellevue Palace, the residence of the

German president The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...

is nearby.

Hansaplatz

Right beside the U-bahn train station is Hansaplatz square. Now an unremarkable traffic junction, this was an active plaza before the war. Hansaviertel Hansaplatz Wasserbecken-001

References

External links

Localities of Berlin *Hansaviertel {{Berlin-geo-stub