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Breitscheidplatz () is a major public square in the inner city of
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. Together with the Kurfürstendamm boulevard, it marks the centre of former
West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
and the present-day City West. It is named after Rudolf Breitscheid.


Location

Breitscheidplatz lies within the
Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...
district near the southwestern tip of the Tiergarten park and the
Zoological Garden A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility where animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for Conservation biology, conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden ...
at the corner of Kurfürstendamm and its eastern continuation, Tauentzienstraße, leading to Schöneberg and the Kaufhaus des Westens on Wittenbergplatz. The Europa-Center mall and highrise closes off the Breitscheidplatz to the east. At its centre is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church with its damaged spire.


History

Breitscheidplatz is at the end of the former Kurfürstendamm bridle path of 1542 which led Elector (''Kurfürst'') Joachim II Hector of Brandenburg to his hunting grounds in the Grunewald forest. In 1889 the square was given the name ''Gutenbergplatz'' after
Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg ( – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and Artisan, craftsman who invented the movable type, movable-type printing press. Though movable type was already in use in East Asia, Gutenberg's inven ...
, the designer of the printing press; in 1892 it was renamed ''Auguste-Viktoria-Platz'' in honour of the German Empress Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein. Shortly after the square was laid out, Auguste-Viktoria's spouse Emperor
Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia from 1888 until Abdication of Wilhelm II, his abdication in 1918, which marked the end of the German Empire as well as th ...
determined it as the site for the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in honour of his grandfather, Emperor
Wilhelm I Wilhelm I (Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 1861 and German Emperor from 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the first head of state of a united Germany. ...
. The church, designed by royal architect Franz Schwechten, was a prime example of Romanesque Revival architecture. Being a native
Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...
er, Schwechten's design of the church was inspired by the Bonn Minster which Wilhelm II knew quite well as he studied in
Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
. It was consecrated in 1895. Around the square until
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, further development took place in a similar Neo-Romanesque style, including on the west side the Ausstellungshallen am Zoologischen Garten, an exhibition and event space completed in 1896, and opposite it the 1899 building on the site of today's Europa-Center which after 1916 housed the Romanisches Café. The square was sometimes called the ''Romanisches Forum'' (Romanesque Forum) or ''Romanisches Viertel'' (Romanesque Quarter) as a result.


20th century

After World War I, the square became a meeting place for bohemians and intellectuals in Berlin, particularly at the Romanisches Café, where writers, artists and musicians congregated and exchanged ideas. In addition, cinema and variety theatre development had begun in the area with conversion of part of the exhibition space on the west side. In 1925 the Ufa-Palast am Zoo opened in one of these spaces, then Germany's largest cinema, followed in 1926 by the Gloria-Palast on the western side, where ''
The Blue Angel ''The Blue Angel'' () is a 1930 German musical comedy-drama film directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings and Kurt Gerron. Written by Carl Zuckmayer, Karl Vollmöller and Robert Liebmann, with uncredite ...
'' premièred on 1 April 1930. By 1928, when
Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and ...
made a speech attacking the commercial establishments surrounding the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, the square contained a cluster of Berlin's premier cinemas—Ufa-Palast am Zoo, Gloria-Palast, Capitol, Marmorhaus and Tauntzien-Palast—in addition to cafés, theatres, and other business establishments, and some businessmen had sought to establish it as Berlin's Broadway. In 1943, the square was heavily bombed and most of the area was destroyed. After
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
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 Unter den Linden (, "under the Tilia, linden trees") is a boulevard in the central Mitte (locality), Mitte district of Berlin, Germany. Running from the Berlin Palace to the Brandenburg Gate, it is named after the Tilia, linden trees (known ...
in
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-Kreuz ...
, then part of
East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...
. In 1947 the square was given the new name 'Breitscheidplatz' after Rudolf Breitscheid, a German
Social Democrat Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...
who was killed at the
Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Nazi Germany, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (pre-1938 ...
in 1944.


Post-war

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (informally known as ''der Hohle Zahn'', "the Hollow Tooth", by Berliners) was in shambles after the war. In the 1950s and 1960s the trend in Berlin was to tear down buildings damaged in the war and to build anew. The renowned West German architect Egon Eiermann originally planned to completely demolish the ruins, causing numerous public protests. He then designed a modern parish church and separate belfry, beside which the ruined spire of the old church would be preserved as a memorial. The new Gedächtniskirche was consecrated in 1961 and soon became the architectural pride of West Berlin and a memorial against war and destruction. The development of the square included the erection of the Zoo Palast cinema replacing the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in 1956, the Bikini-Haus on the northern side finished in 1957 (named after its bare "midriff" on the second floor) and the Schimmelpfeng-Haus built in 1960 (now demolished) on the site of the old Gloria-Palast. In 1965, the Europa-Center shopping mall was opened by Mayor
Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and concurrently served as the Chancellor ...
on the site of the former Romanisches Café. It included a large cinema complex and an highrise. The Center with its characteristic
Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...
star on top became a major business centre and unofficially gave the Breitscheidplatz the reputation of being the commercial hotspot in West Berlin. Today the building still hosts numerous department stores, pavement coffee shops and restaurants and is a popular tourist attraction. It has landmark status.


Redevelopment

The Breitscheidplatz, still one of Berlin's most visited places, is known by many as one of the quintessential squares of Berlin. It presents an awkward yet typical Berlin combination of the old and the new, the cultural and commercial. Since the turn of the millennium, city plans developed for the Breitscheidplatz include bettering the quality for pedestrians and more public competitions for the future planning of Breitscheidplatz. In 2006, the automobile tunnel on Budapester Straße in front of the was closed and the pedestrian zone extended. From 2010 to 2014 the Bikini-Haus was refurbished as a shopping mall and a hotel, including the redevelopment of the adjacent Zoo Palast as a multi-screen cinema complex. The destruction of the ''Schimmelpfeng-Haus'' began in 2009 to build the ''Zoofenster'' highrise, with offices, restaurants and a Waldorf Astoria hotel, and the neighbouring ''Upper West'' tower block, to create an attractive urban area with livable space. Other plans include renovating the bus station on Hardenbergplatz in front of the Bahnhof Zoo and other urban spaces in the vicinity.


2016 Christmas market attack

On 19 December 2016, at about 20:00 local time, a truck-ramming attack was made on the
Christmas market A Christmas market is a street market associated with the celebration of Christmas during the four weeks of Advent. These markets originated in Germany, but are now held in many countries. Some in the U.S. have Phono-semantic matching, adapted ...
at Breitscheidplatz, killing thirteen people and injuring 48 others. In preparation for the Christmas market 2018, the square and its surrounding were fortified against further terrorist attacks.


Public transport

Breitscheidplatz can be reached by
S-Bahn The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...
via the Zoologischer Garten station (S 5, S 7, S 75, S 9) as well as by
U-Bahn Rapid transit in Germany consists of four systems and 14 systems. The , commonly understood to stand for ('underground railway'), are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while the or ('city rapid railway') are c ...
via Zoologischer Garten (U 2, U 9) and Kurfürstendamm stations (U 1, U 9). Busses stop at Breitscheidplatz (lines 100 and 200) and Europa-Center (M29, M19). The Bahnhof Zoo was constructed in 1882 and functioned as the main railway station of West Berlin. Its importance as a major hub diminished when in preparation for the
2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...
the new
Berlin Hauptbahnhof Berlin Hauptbahnhof () (English: Berlin Central Station) is the main railway station in Berlin, Germany. It came into full operation two days after a ceremonial opening on 26 May 2006. It is located on the site of the historic Lehrter Bahnhof, ...
was completed at the site of the former Lehrter Bahnhof; this is now the main train station in Berlin, and the German
Intercity-Express Intercity Express (commonly known as ICE () and running under this Train categories in Europe, category) is a high-speed rail in Germany, high-speed rail system in Germany. It also serves destinations in Austria, France, Belgium, Switzerland an ...
and
InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the train categories in Europe, classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to InterRegio, regional train, r ...
long distance trains no longer stop by default at Zoologischer Garten.


See also

* City West


References


Sources

*http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de 18 May 2006 *Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung, Berlin (April 2004) "Nachhaltiges Berlin". *Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung, Berlin (December 2005) "Stadtforum Berlin".


External links


Webcam of the BreitscheidplatzGoogle Images of the BreitscheidplatzHomepage of the Europa-Center
{{Authority control Squares in Berlin Buildings and structures in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Charlottenburg