Wittenbergplatz is a square in the central

Schöneberg Schöneberg () is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Te ...

district 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 ...

. One of the main plazas in the " City West" area, it is known for the large '' Kaufhaus des Westens'' (KaDeWe) department store on its southwestern side. Berlin Wittenbergplatz 1904

It was laid out between 1889 and 1892 in the course of the urban development in the western suburbs of Berlin's Wilhelmine Ring according to the Hobrecht-Plan. The square was then part of a major

boulevard A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway or wide road in a commercial district. In Europe, boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former ...

running from

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 ...

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 ...

with numerous sections named after victorious commanders in the German Campaign during the Napoleonic Wars, colloquially called ''Generalszug''. The westernmost section was named Tauentzienstraße after General Bogislav von Tauentzien, who had received the honorific title ''von Wittenberg'' after the storming of the French-occupied town of

Wittenberg Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is the fourth-largest town in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, in the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. It is situated on the River Elbe, north of Leipzig and south-west of the reunified German ...

on 14 February 1814 (although General Lieutenant Leopold Wilhelm von Dobschütz had actually led the Prussian troops). Therefore, the adjacent square got the name ''Wittenbergplatz'' Since then, the square forms the eastern terminus of Tauentzienstraße, today a major shopping street, connecting it with Breitscheidplatz in the west. In 1902 Wittenbergplatz station opened on the first

Berlin U-Bahn The Berlin U-Bahn (; short for , "underground railway") is a rapid transit system in Berlin, the capital and largest city of Germany, and a major part of the city's public transport system. Together with the Berlin S-Bahn, S-Bahn, a network of ...

line ('' Stammstrecke''); ten years later, it was rebuilt including an impressive entrance hall in the centre of the square, designed by Alfred Grenander. The KaDeWe department store opened in 1907 on the corner of Wittenbergplatz and Tauentzienstraße, it is today the largest department store in

Continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...

. The northern side of the square is home to street markets four times a week. The south side of the square features the fountain '' Lebensalter''.

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External links

* Buildings and structures in Tempelhof-Schöneberg Squares in Berlin {{Berlin-struct-stub