French Street (Berlin)

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French street
coat of arms
Street in Berlin
French street
The former main post office in Berlin W 8
Basic data
place Berlin
District center
Created 17th century
Connecting roads Hannah-Arendt-Strasse ,
Werderscher Markt
Cross streets Mauerstrasse ,
Glinkastrasse ,
Friedrichstrasse ,
Charlottenstrasse ,
Markgrafenstrasse ,
Hedwigskirchgasse ,
Behind the Catholic Church ,
Oberwallstrasse
Places Gendarmenmarkt
Buildings Buildings and sights
use
User groups Pedestrian traffic , bicycle traffic , car traffic , public transport
Technical specifications
Street length around 900 meters

The Französische Straße is a street running in a west-east direction in the Berlin district of Mitte of the district of the same name . It connects Hannah-Arendt-Straße with Werderscher Markt , which continues beyond the Spree Island as Rathausstraße . Its name goes back to the French religious refugees ( Huguenots ) who settled here after the Edict of Potsdam at the end of the 17th century and who, among other things, built the French Friedrichstadtkirche .

An extension to the Hannah-Arendt-Straße / Wilhelmstraße intersection, which was unnamed until 2009, was incorporated into Französische Straße on December 15, 2009 when it was opened to traffic.

history

The street, already listed in the old Berlin city ​​center west of the bastion in the Friedrichsvorstadt area, was officially named around 1706. The name Französische Straße refers to “the French Réfugiés who had large estates in this street”. Around the year 1700, almost every fifth Berliner was French . The French Réfugiés had mainly settled in the Dorotheenstadt . Around 1740, neighboring street sections such as At the French Cemetery and After the French Cemetery were included in the course.

In those years the street ended to the east at a building that had been the seat of the First Chamber of the Prussian manor house since 1849 . After it fell victim to a fire in 1851, the ruins were removed and the Französische Straße was extended to Oberwallstraße.

The inner-city street system of the French, Wall , Jäger , Friedrich and Charlottenstraße was the center of the barricade fighting of the March Revolution in 1848 . Recalled one unveiled in 1998 Bronze - Plaque on the corner French street / Oberwallstrasse with the following inscription: "At this site, there was the first of the Prussian Guard troops commanded by General Karl Ludwig von Prittwitz attacked barricades. It had to be given up after a short fight and only a few defenders escaped over the roofs. "

Café Praha , 1952
In the house of F. W. Borchardt

In the 1980s, the GDR government had numerous new buildings erected instead of the buildings destroyed in World War II. The architectural style was based on the existing Schinkel buildings and the previous storey height, but prefabricated concrete parts were used as material, which were given a rich profile. They again led to a closed street scene and can only be recognized as new buildings on closer inspection.

Buildings and sights

Galeries Lafayette department store , at the intersection with Friedrichstrasse

Galeries Lafayette Berlin , a branch of the French department store chain Galeries Lafayette, is located at the corner of Französische Strasse and Friedrichstrasse . The subway station, Französische Straße , named after the street, is right next to it . The theater on the Gendarmenmarkt is in the immediate vicinity of the Französische Straße .

Other historical and partially listed buildings are

  • Numbers 1–7 and 63–68: Deutsche Bank building complex , around 1872–1874
  • 8 Post Office Berlin W, from 1908 to 1912 in the style of: number 9-12 Dutch Baroque for the Reichspost erected
  • Number 13/14: residential and commercial building, around 1880
  • Number 24: residential and commercial building, around 1895
Klaus Gietinger at the memorial event for murdered Volksmarine soldiers at Französische Strasse 32 on March 11, 2019

Commercial buildings no longer preserved (selection, status: 1943)

  • Number 16: German Institute for Banking Science and Banking e. V.
  • Numbers 18 and 49–56: Reichs-Credit-Gesellschaft AG
  • Number 22/23: Wirtschaftpolitischer Dienst-Verlag H. Funke and German Labor Science Institute
  • Number 33: Gothaer Feuerversicherungs-Bank AG, District Directorate Greater Berlin
  • Numbers 33a, 33b, 33c: Deutsche Reichspost with the Telegraph Construction Office and a pneumatic tube service
  • Number 33e: branch of the Dresdner Bank
  • Number 46: Reich Ministry of Economics
  • Number 49: Faber Castell sales branch
  • Numbers 50–56: Reichs-Kredit-Gesellschaft , house 52 1883–1889 owned by Gothaer Leben
  • Number 57/58: Berliner Bank Institut Joseph Goldschmidt Co.
Two sides of a concrete block painted with sayings

Street art

In 2014 and 2015, concrete blocks with sayings can be seen along the eastern part of this street. These come from the artist Wolfgang Nieblich and adorn the construction site barriers of the Brechtel company .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. Map of old Berlin 1738  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; however, it is shown in a south-north direction@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.alt-berlin.info  
  2. a b c d e French Street . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1943, Part IV, p. 236. Explanation of names and course
  3. ^ Günter Linde, Hans-Gert Kramer: Did the Neanderthals speak English? Aufbau-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-7466-8003-4 , p. 199.
  4. ^ French street. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  5. Inge Kiessig: Window seat for the eyewitness. Tribune series: Berlin street stories from October 8, 1983
  6. Architectural monument complex Dt. Bank at Französische Strasse 1–7, 63–68; Main entrance on Mauerstraße, 1872–1874 by Ende & Böckmann
  7. Architectural monument Französische Strasse 9–12, Post Office W 8, 1908–1912 by Wilhelm Walter and Ludwig Meyer
  8. Monument Französische Straße 13/14, residential and commercial building, around 1880
  9. French monument, residential and commercial building, around 1895
  10. ^ Andreas Conrad: November Revolution : Commemoration of those who died in the March riots in 1919 in Berlin. In: tagesspiegel.de . March 11, 2019, accessed March 17, 2019 .
  11. Dresdner Bank monument, Französische Strasse and Behrenstrasse 36–39, 1887–1923
  12. Architectural monument complex Berliner Handelsgesellschaft, 1897–1900 by Alfred Messel
  13. On concrete on Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 53.1 ″  N , 13 ° 23 ′ 21.6 ″  E