Wilhelmstraße, or Wilhelmstrasse (see
ß; ; ) is a major
thoroughfare in the central
Mitte and
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Berlin-Mitte, Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in ...
districts of Berlin, Germany. Until 1945, it was recognised as the centre of the government, first of the
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...
, and later of the unified
German Reich, housing in particular the
Reich Chancellery and the
Foreign Office
Foreign may refer to:
Government
* Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries
** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government
** Foreign office and foreign minister
* United ...
. The street's name was thus also frequently used as a
metonym
Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something associated with that thing or concept. For example, the word "wikt:suit, suit" may refer to a person from groups commonly wearing business attire, such ...
for overall German governmental administration: much as the term "
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It ...
" is often used to signify the British governmental administration as a whole. In English, "the Wilhelmstrasse" usually referred to the German Foreign Office.
[See ''Daisy, Princess of Pless'' by Herself, p. 63. ''OED'', "Wilhelmstrasse"]
Course
The Wilhelmstraße runs south from the
Spree riverside through the historic
Dorotheenstadt quarter to the
Unter den Linden boulevard near
Pariser Platz and
Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate ( ) is an 18th-century Neoclassical architecture, neoclassical monument in Berlin. One of the best-known landmarks of Germany, it was erected on the site of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin t ...
, where it takes on a line slightly east of south through adjacent
Friedrichstadt, until its juncture with Stresemannstraße near
Hallesches Tor in Kreuzberg, an overall distance of about .
Further south of
Unter den Linden it passes the nowadays built-over former
Wilhelmplatz vis-Ã -vis
Voss-Straße, it crosses
Leipziger Straße near
Leipziger and
Potsdamer Platz, and
Niederkirchnerstraße, known until after World War II as ''Prinz-Albrecht-Straße''. At its southern end, Wilhelmstraße originally met with
Friedrichstraße, which runs roughly parallel to the east, on the
Belle-Alliance circus, before the street course was westerly redirected to the Stresemannstraße junction about 1970.
Between Unter den Linden and parallel Behrenstraße, the road is closed for motor vehicles as a protection of the
Embassy of the United Kingdom.
History
Frederick William I, from 1713
King in Prussia and
Elector of Brandenburg, had the southwestern Friedrichstadt quarter of his Berlin residence significantly enlarged, whereby the premises up to the
Berlin Customs Wall (on present-day Stresemannstrasse) were developed as an affluent residential area. In 1731 the ''Husarenstraße'' (Street of the
Hussar
A hussar, ; ; ; ; . was a member of a class of light cavalry, originally from the Kingdom of Hungary during the 15th and 16th centuries. The title and distinctive dress of these horsemen were subsequently widely adopted by light cavalry ...
s) was built as a north-south thoroughfare of the
Baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
city layout, where many
Huguenots, who had fled from
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, as well as expelled members of the
Moravian Church
The Moravian Church, or the Moravian Brethren ( or ), formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohemian Reformation of the 15th century and the original ...
settled. Several personal confidants of the king had large city palaces erected, most notably General
Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin and the French Baron François Mathieu Vernezobre de Laurieux, who took his residence in the later
Prinz-Albrecht-Palais. The street was renamed ''Wilhelmstraße'' in honour of the king, who had died in 1740.
Government district
Originally a wealthy residential street, with a number of palaces belonging to members of the
Hohenzollern royal family, the Wilhelmstrasse developed as a Prussian government precinct from the mid 19th century. In 1858 King
Frederick William IV acquired the former ''Palais Schwerin'' on No. 73. This building now called
Palace of the Reich President housed an administrative seat of the Prussian minister for the Royal Household, from 1861 led by
Alexander von Schleinitz. In 1869 the nearby ''Palais Schulenburg'' residence of late Prince
Antoni Radziwiłł, built in 1738/39 on No. 77, was purchased by the Prussian state government at the behest of Schleinitz' opponent Minister-President
Otto von Bismarck
Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...
. Rebuilt from 1875 until 1878, it served as his official seat as
German chancellor. The next door building on No. 76 was used for the chancellery's Foreign Office department.
Several further governmental departments took their seat on Wilhelmstrasse, such as the
Reich Ministry of Finance (No. 61), the
Imperial Colonial Office (No. 62), the
Prussian state ministry (No. 63), the
Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture (No. 72), and the
Reich Ministry of Transport (No. 79, from 1919). The lavish
Palais Strousberg of bankrupt "railway king"
Bethel Henry Strousberg on No. 70 was bought by Prince Hugo of
Hohenlohe in an 1876 auction and rented out to the
British ambassador
Lord Ampthill, until it was finally purchased by the United Kingdom in 1884. In 1877 the
Borsig Palace was erected on the corner with Voss-Strasse.
Weimar Republic and Nazi years
After World War I the ''Palais Schwerin'' was sold by exiled 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 ...
to the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...
government and in 1919 became the residence of the first
Reich President of Germany,
Friedrich Ebert. Until the death of his successor
Paul von Hindenburg in 1934, the President's official residence was at ''Wilhelmstraße 73'', where he could watch the torchlight parade on the night of the Nazi ''
Machtergreifung'' on 30 January 1933, after he had sworn in
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
as German chancellor. Hitler addressed the cheering crowds on Wilhelmstrasse from a window of a modern chancellery annex building erected in 1930. Styling himself "''
Führer'' and Reich Chancellor" from 1934, he regarded the residence inadequate and ordered the construction of the vast
New Reich Chancellery according to plans designed by
Albert Speer. This building, a prime example of
Nazi architecture, stood immediately south of the old Chancellery, on the corner of the Wilhelmstrasse and the
Voss Strasse, and its official address was ''Voßstraße 4''.
The Foreign Office moved into the former Reich President's palace, the old building being refurbished in grandiose style at the behest of Nazi Minister
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich-Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German Nazi politician and diplomat who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany), Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945. ...
. Vis-Ã -vis on Wilhelmplatz, the Baroque ''
Ordenspalais'' was refurbished as seat of the
Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda led by
Joseph Goebbels. In 1935/36 his party fellow
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician, aviator, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which gov ...
had the huge
Ministry of Aviation edifice designed by
Ernst Sagebiel built on the corner with Leipziger Strasse. The adjacent ''Prinz-Albrecht-Palais'' in the south became notorious as the seat of the ''
Sicherheitsdienst'' of the ''
Reichsführer-SS'' and the ''
Sicherheitspolizei'' chief-of-staff; merged into the ''
SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt'' terror complex under
Reinhard Heydrich in 1939. Most of the public buildings along Wilhelmstrasse were destroyed by
Allied bombing during 1944 and early 1945 and during the following
Battle of Berlin.
Cold War
After the war, Wilhelmstrasse as far south as Niederkirchnerstrasse was in the
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
sector of Allied-occupied Berlin, and apart from clearing the rubble from the street little was done to reconstruct the area until the founding of the
German Democratic Republic
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
(GDR) in 1949, with
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 ...
as its capital. One of the earliest reconstructions was the 1948-built provisional wooden church hall of the
Moravian Brethren congregation on Wilhelmstrasse 138.
The
communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
GDR regime regarded the former government precinct as a relic of Prussian and Nazi militarism and imperialism, and had all the ruins of the government buildings demolished in the early 1950s. In the late 1950s there were almost no buildings at all along the Wilhelmstrasse from Unter den Linden to the Leipziger Strasse. The only major surviving public building in the Wilhelmstrasse was just Göring's
Reich Air Ministry
The Ministry of Aviation (, abbreviated RLM) was a government department during the period of Nazi Germany (1933–45). It is also the original name of the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus building on the Wilhelmstrasse in central Berlin, Germany, which ...
, which had escaped major damage during the war. As one of the few intact government buildings in central Berlin, it was used by the
Soviet Military Administration in Germany and the (East)
German Economic Commission, later by the
German People's Council of the
Soviet occupation zone, its
People's Chamber successor and several East German ministries and government departments. As ''Haus der Ministerien'' it was at the centre of the popular demonstrations during the
workers' uprising of 17 June 1953.
The building of the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...
in 1961 cut the street in half. In 1964 the East Berlin section of the street was named after the former GDR Minister-president
Otto Grotewohl, who had died in office on 21 September. Several embassies of "befriended" countries were erected on the corner with Unter den Linden from about 1970 onwards. The new embassy building of the
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, (Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak: ''Československá socialistická republika'', ČSSR) known from 1948 to 1960 as the Czechoslovak Republic (''Československá republika)'', Fourth Czecho ...
was erected from 1974 to 1978 on Wilhelmplatz. In the 1980s, several ''
Plattenbau'' (concrete slab) apartment blocks were built on the cleared premises along East Berlin ''Otto-Grotewohl-Straße''. The flats were quite popular among the
nomenklatura, as they provided an undisturbed view across the Wall's towards
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 ...
. The former "death strip" is today the site of the
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.
Today
Today, the Wilhelmstraße is an important traffic artery, but has not regained its former status. Since
German reunification
German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...
, some federal ministries have moved their seats to Wilhelmstraße, such as the
Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs on former Wilhelmplatz, the
Ministry of Finance in the former Reich Ministry of Aviation complex (renamed ''
Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus'' in 1992), as well as the
Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection on ''Wilhelmstraße'' 72 – the only German government ministry now located on its prewar site although in a partly reconstructed building.
The British Embassy, whose original building had been destroyed by bombing, was rebuilt on the site.
Queen Elizabeth II officiated at the grand opening in July 2000. Other public institutions on Wilhelmstraße include the
ARD-Hauptstadtstudio (television studio) of the
ARD broadcasting organization at the northern Spree riverside, the
E-Werk techno club, the
Topography of Terror museum at the former ''Reichssicherheitshauptamt'' site, and the ''Willy-Brandt-Haus'' headquarters of the
Social Democratic Party of Germany on the southern corner with Stresemannstrasse.
Many of the occupants of the GDR apartment blocks are recent immigrants, and there are a number of shops and restaurants catering to
Russians
Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...
and
Turks. In recent years the City of Berlin has placed a series of historical markers along Wilhelmstraße, showing where the well-known buildings of the pre-war era stood. On 8 November 2011 a memorial in honour of the failed assassin
Johann Georg Elser was inaugurated at the site of the former Reich Chancellery.
Notes
External links
*
Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin online street mapsThe Historical Wilhelmstraße
{{Authority control
1731 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire
Transport infrastructure completed in 1731
Wilhelmstraße
Mitte
Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
Frederick William I of Prussia