Mauerstrasse (Berlin)

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Mauerstrasse
coat of arms
Street in Berlin
Mauerstrasse
Deutsche Bank, connecting bridge
Basic data
place Berlin
District center
Connecting roads Behrenstrasse ,
Schützenstrasse
Cross streets French Street ,
Jägerstrasse ,
Taubenstrasse ,
Mohrenstrasse ,
Kronenstrasse ,
Leipziger Strasse ,
Krausenstrasse
Places Zietenplatz , Bethlehemkirchplatz
Buildings see buildings and sights
Technical specifications
Street length 390 meters

The Wall Street is a street in the Berlin district of Mitte . At the northern end it joins Behrenstraße , at Zietenplatz and Mohrenstraße it bends twice briefly and to the south it ends just before Friedrichstraße in Schützenstraße . Mainly commercial and banking houses as well as official buildings are located in Mauerstrasse.

history

The architect Jean de Bodt planned to surround Friedrichstadt with a wall and fortress. The line of the wall was also marked out, but the wall was no longer erected because the development of the street, which had been built around 1720, was already too far advanced. Nevertheless, it got its name according to the original design plans.

With the expansion of Friedrichstadt, the area south of Leipziger Strasse between Mauerstrasse and Wilhelmstrasse was built on in the period from 1732 to 1738. When an economic boom set in after the founding of the German Empire in 1871, the house gardens that were in the inner block area became building land. By 1900 the older residential buildings were almost completely displaced by commercial and service buildings. The ensemble of houses at Mauerstraße 12 and 69–94 illustrates the process of urban development over a century and a half.

Mauerstraße with Bethlehem Church around 1780

The Holy Trinity Church and the Bethlehem Church , among others, fell victim to the Second World War .

The Holy Trinity Church was built from 1737 to 1739 according to plans by T. Favre. The model was the Bethlehem Church , also called the Bohemian Church . The round baroque central building was provided with a neo-baroque vestibule including sacristy and baptistery in 1885/1886. On November 23, 1943, the church burned down as a result of an Allied air raid . The ruins were converted into an air raid shelter and suffered further damage during the street fighting in May 1945. In 1947 the surrounding walls of the former church were blown up.

Mauerstrasse around 1780 on a stamp of the Deutsche Bundespost Berlin from 1963
A church bell on Thälmannplatz, the former Wilhelmplatz , 1950

The Bethlehem Church or Bohemian Church was only slightly older. It was built from 1735 to 1737 by Friedrich Wilhelm Diterichs . It got its second name because it was intended for the Bohemians who emigrated from their homeland for religious reasons . It had a circular shape with a diameter of about 15 meters with attached cross arms. In the eastern, semicircular cross arm there were altar and pulpit, on the west side there was a singing gallery and organ. Overall, the Bethlehem Church was 37.90 meters high; she had two bells. After being destroyed in the war, it was removed. Its floor plan was later recorded as a floor monument with colored paving stones on the Bethlehemkirchplatz, named after the church in 1999 .

Buildings and sights

  • The Bulgarian Embassy is located at Mauerstraße 11 .
  • The house at Mauerstraße 15 was to be demolished in the 1990s in favor of a building project, the diplomatic center on the area of ​​Mauer-, Kronen-, Friedrich- and Leipziger Straße. According to an appraisal from 1990, however, the house, which was built in 1860 at the latest, was to be regarded as unique and was considered the last of its kind in downtown Berlin . The five-storey building with the two side wings had a separate spiral staircase for the servants and open galleries that connected the side wings. In 1994 it was temporarily placed under protection to prevent demolition. Based on the examinations of the timber, it was assumed in 1995 that the lower three floors were from 1750 and the upper floors were added later. In July of that year, the house was demolished in a single day. The guilt was assigned to the building councilor Dorothee Dubrau , who had granted the demolition permit.
  • The building ensemble at Mauerstraße 16–24 is a listed building. The residential and commercial buildings to the southeast of the Deutsche Bank facilities date from the period between 1841 and 1890. The area is the last witness to the mix of uses that was common in northern Friedrichsstadt at the end of the 19th century.
  • The house at Mauerstraße 22 , on the corner of Taubenstraße from 1853, is now used as an office building and is a listed building. The classicist building was built as a tenement house for the merchant Theodor Gustav Eduard Bote. It was badly damaged in the war, lost its original attic in the 1950s and was renovated in 2002. In 2003 it won the facade competition of the Berlin-Brandenburg State Guild Association of painters and varnishers in its category.
  • The house at Mauerstraße 23 from 1841, with a commercial unit on the ground floor and seven apartments on four floors, is a listed building. Erected for the master tailor Johann Heinrich Simon Metz, the tenement house was rebuilt in 1873.
  • The Deutsche Bank buildings at Mauerstraße 25–32 are listed. They belong together with the other two quarters of Deutsche Bank in Mauerstrasse 39-42. They document the change from the baroque Friedrichstadt to a monumental business town. Deutsche Bank became Germany's largest financial institution in 1910 and was briefly the world's most financially strong bank in 1914. It was founded in 1870 and initially had its premises in Mauerstraße 29 / Französische Straße 68. Then Behrenstraße 9/10 was bought by the Union Bank. In 1882, Wilhelm Martens was commissioned to plan the new buildings and conversions at Deutsche Bank. In the same year he replaced the main building with a new building and changed the building at Französische Straße 66/67. Between 1896 and 1902, the eastern part of the previous baroque residential area was completely built over, with the facade of Behrenstrasse 9/10 being adapted to this new building. The complex was three stories high and designed in the style of Italian Renaissance palaces. In 1921 and 1922 he received another floor from Wilhelm Kimbel . The eastern building block was followed by a block in the southern quarter between 1908 and 1910. The four-storey monumental building with a high basement and two small courtyards has an almost square floor plan. The main front facing Mauerstraße is curved and shaped by the Italian Baroque, whereas the other facades were initially influenced by Art Nouveau, but are now designed in the style of the 1950s. The two building blocks were initially connected by two bridges that spanned the street. Of these bridges, only the one built between 1908 and 1910, which spans the Französische Straße, has been preserved. It is stretched over a basket arch and adorned with four atlases, which symbolize the four elements. After the war damage, the two complexes received a new facade system by Franz Ehrlich for the GDR Interior Ministry.
  • Carl Philipp Heinrich Pistor founded his factory at Mauerstraße 34.
  • The Königsmarcksche Palais with the address Mauerstraße 36 had to give way to a bank building, as did the neighboring buildings. The new building at Mauerstrasse 35-38 based on plans by Hans Jessen moved into the 1901 Kayser & v. Großheim also erected buildings for Nordstern-Lebensversicherung . The neo-baroque red sandstone facade of the insurance building was preserved at that time. After being destroyed in the war, the complex was rebuilt in the early 1950s, using old parts of the facade.
  • The Deutsche Bank buildings at Mauerstraße 39-42 are listed.
  • The former Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda is located at Mauerstraße 45-52 and is a listed building. The high command of the protection forces was temporarily housed in Mauerstrasse 45/46 . The Reich Colonial Office was located in the immediate vicinity at Wilhelmstrasse 62.
    In several construction phases, the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda had Prince Karl's palace on Wilhelmplatz , in which Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels had his official residence since 1933, expanded at Mauerstrasse 45-52. The plans came from Karl Reichle . The baroque Prinzenpalais, rebuilt in a classicist manner by Karl Friedrich Schinkel , was destroyed in the Second World War, but the complex on Mauerstraße survived the war with few losses. It has a symmetrically designed facade, and according to the Berlin monument database, the structures have been standardized “to the point of rigidity”. The system was set off from the neighboring buildings by moving it back behind the building line and two pylons. After the war the marble lining of the building was missing. It was used at times by the German People's Council , the predecessor of the GDR People's Chamber , then by the National Council of the National Front of the GDR. Josef Paul Kleihues took care of the renovation from 1997 to 2000 while preserving some of the old rooms from the time of National Socialism and the GDR. Today the building is the seat of the Federal Ministry for Labor and Social Affairs.
  • The Kleisthaus in Mauerstraße 53 is a listed building. The Heydt & Co. banking house was built by Bodo Ebhardt in 1912–1913 and named after a previous building that Heinrich von Kleist had lived in. It has a central risalite, which is crowned by a gable with Ionic colossal pilasters. The three upper floors above the rustication zone are clad with shell limestone and decorated with figurative decorations. Georg Kolbe created the relief panel with Kleist's profile and the amazon that adorn the facade. The Kleisthaus was originally set back a few meters behind the building line compared to the neighboring buildings. The extension of the street that resulted from this is no longer recognizable today, as in 1940 an extension wing of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was built in place of the old neighboring building. The renovation from 1997 to 2000 was planned by the architect Josef Paul Kleihues. He had the courtyard of the building on the ground floor built over and shortened by a window axis. Today the building belongs to the Federal Ministry for Labor and Social Affairs.
  • The prefabricated apartment buildings at Mauerstrasse 65–68 were built in 1989 and 1990 and contained around 140 apartments, some of which were intended for foreign diplomats, but which could no longer be used after the dissolution of the GDR . In 2002, the demolition was planned in favor of the new urban development concept, but in 2010 the gutting and renovation was put out to tender.
  • The Postal Museum and its gardens at Mauerstraße 69-75, which was built between 1871 and 1874 according to plans by Carl Schwatlo and expanded from 1893 to 1898 according to plans by Ernst Hake , is a listed building. The Reichspostmuseum was opened in the historic building in 1897. A large part of the facility, but not the extension towards Mauerstraße, was destroyed in the Second World War. From 1945 the building housed the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications of the GDR and the Post Museum. From 1958 to 1963 a simplified reconstruction of the destroyed parts took place, in 1982 additions were made. From 1989 the old shape of the building was reconstructed. Since 2000 the museum in the complex has been called the Museum for Communication.
  • The Hillbrich house at Mauerstraße 76, which was built by Carl Mostert in 1908 and renovated in 2003, is a listed building. The Art Nouveau facade is decorated with shell limestone facings. The ground floor and first floor were once used by the Hillbrich confectionery. The Berlin editorial offices of the Economist and the Financial Times now use part of the building.
  • The house at Mauerstraße 77 from 1914 is a listed building. It was built for the businesswoman P. Wicke according to plans by Wilhelm Johow . A classic pillar facade was chosen for the street facade, which resembles the section of a larger shop front. The shopping area on the ground floor and the first floor is clearly separated from the other floors. The office floors above are optically structured strictly vertically. The architectural ornaments are classicist.
  • The tenement house at Mauerstrasse 78 and 79 in front of the substation was completed in 1883. The building owner was the German construction company. Together with the substation, it enjoys ensemble protection.
  • The tenement house at Mauerstrasse 80 was also completed by the Deutsche Baugesellschaft in 1883.
  • The Buchhandlerhof substation at Mauerstraße 78–80, which was built in 1885–1886 and put into operation on March 22, 1886, is a listed building. Among other things, it supplied the Hotel Kaiserhof and the street lighting on Unter den Linden with electricity. The facility was enlarged in 1889. From 1896 the line Behrenstraße - Treptow of the later Berliner Elektrische Straßenbahnen AG was supplied with direct current from here. In the 1920s, a large part of the system was converted into a substation or demolished. Only today's Hall C dates from the early years. The conversion to the Buchhandlerhof substation was completed in 1928. The area around Friedrichstrasse, the administrative district and the area around Potsdamer and Leipziger Platz were supplied from here . Some stumbling blocks in front of the property at Mauerstraße 78 remind of the expropriations in the course of Albert Speer 's capital planning. The area was badly damaged during the bombing war in 1944, but the substation remained in operation. This only happened during the house-to-house war in the spring of 1945. Large parts of the buildings were destroyed at that time, and traces of the fighting can still be seen on the remains.
Markthalle III, facade section at Mauerstraße 82
  • The Market Hall III in the Wall Street 82 was 1882/1883 by Hermann Blankenstein built, closed in 1910 and converted into a concert hall "Sting", which was later divided and converted: Because of the war closed, was out of the concert hall first a collection point for the factory action . Much of the buildings on the property were destroyed in World War II. After the construction of the Berlin Wall in the border district, the property was provided with factory buildings and used for machine production; by 2006 it was renovated. The building is now mainly home to art galleries and, since 2011, a permanent exhibition on the history of the Stasi .
  • The Schimming house in Mauerstraße 83/84 is a listed building.
  • The house at Mauerstraße 85 from 1839 is a listed building. It was built by the client painter Ludwig Benjamin Grützmacher and rebuilt in 1862 and 1875. A predecessor of the house was a two-storey front building that belonged to the school teacher Christian Schmidt. In 1835 the headmaster Friedrich Samuel Draeger bought the property and had the house increased to four floors in 1839. In addition, a three-story side building was built. In 1875 a four-story transverse building was added. At that time the property belonged to the master painter Wilhelm Schulz. The facade painting of the house may come from this owner. It was executed on a red-brown ground and imitated a cladding of the facade made of encrusted clay panels with grout lines and neo-Renaissance ornaments. This painting was restored from 1994 to 1996. Late classicist wall frames with stencil painting from the same period as the facade painting were on the first floor. In 1937 the wine shop and liquor factory Julius Kahlbaum took over the house.
  • The house at Mauerstraße 86-88 , which was built between 1895 and 1900 and rebuilt in 1935, is a listed building. The client was Union Baugesellschaft. The first owner was A. Plümacher-Lüps. From 1934 the building, which contained 16 rental apartments in addition to shops, was forcibly administered by Brücker & Mai GmbH. Until 1938, Lumen Grundstücks-GmbH was registered as the owner.
  • The house at Mauerstraße 93 from around 1905 is a listed building. Apparently the property belonged to the furniture dealer J. Anders as early as 1904, who had a previous building demolished. The current building dates from around 1905. It has a filigree pillar facade with a bay window on the first floor, but it no longer has the original decoration. In contrast, the doors, elevator, banisters and floors of the original furnishings have been preserved inside. The house was used as a furniture store, and apparently one or two apartments were also rented out.
  • Picture gallery

  • Bethlehem Church in 1910

  • Trinity Church in 1930

  • Mauerstraße 15 in the 1950s

  • Mauerstrasse 22

  • Mauerstrasse 23

  • Mauerstrasse 39-42

  • Post Museum, Mauerstrasse 69–75

  • Mauerstrasse 78/79

  • Buchhandlerhof substation

  • Markthalle III, facade facing Zimmerstrasse

  • Mauerstrasse 85

  • Mauerstrasse 86-88

Known residents

Web links

Commons : Mauerstraße (Berlin-Mitte)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the topography text in the monument database
  2. ↑ Kirchensprengung.de
  3. ↑ Bethlehem Church . In: District lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
  4. ↑ Uwe Aulich: A monumental house stands in the way of the diplomatic center: Mauerstraße 15 is to be temporarily protected . In: Berliner Zeitung , December 13, 1994
  5. ↑ Uwe Aulich: Investigations into the monument status are ongoing: Mauerstrasse 15 is under protection . In: Berliner Zeitung , March 13, 1995
  6. ↑ Only rubble remained of the house at Mauerstrasse 15: the demolition ball ended the dispute . In: Berliner Zeitung , July 13, 1995
  7. ↑ See Monument Database Berlin
  8. ↑ From the ugly duckling to the proud swan. Renovation report ( memento of the original from March 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sto.at
  9. ↑ Mauerstrasse . In: District lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein and also the monument database Berlin, according to an architect's website ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. it was built after 1900. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / foan-architekten.de
  10. ↑ Kambeck.de
  11. ↑ See Monument Database Berlin
  12. ↑ See Monument Database Berlin
  13. ↑ See Monument Database Berlin
  14. ↑ Tenant Magazine , November 2002
  15. ↑ Construction portal
  16. ↑ Postal Museum . In: District lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
  17. ↑ Hillbrich House
  18. ↑ See Monument Database Berlin
  19. ↑ See Monument Database Berlin
  20. ↑ See Monument Database Berlin
  21. ↑ The history of the Ewerk on Ewerk.net
  22. ↑ carthalia
  23. ↑ See Monument Database Berlin
  24. ↑ See Monument Database Berlin
  25. ↑ See Monument Database Berlin

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 '43.6 "  N , 13 ° 23' 9.2"  E