Moritzplatz (Berlin)

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Moritzplatz
Coat of arms of Berlin.svg
Place in Berlin
Moritzplatz
Northeastern development of Moritzplatz
Basic data
place Berlin
District Kreuzberg
Created around 1860
Confluent streets
Oranienstrasse ,
Prinzenstrasse
Buildings Building house
use
User groups Pedestrians , cyclists , road traffic , public transport

The Moritzplatz in Berlin is located in the former Luisenstadt in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg . It has the shape of a square . The square was named after Moritz von Oranien in 1841 .

Location and development

The following streets cross Moritzplatz:

The square acts as a distributor of motor vehicle traffic with a roundabout . Below is the Moritzplatz underground station on the U8 line with its four exits.

The course is in the north of the Kreuzberg district ( SW 61 ). The district boundary between the districts of Mitte and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg runs around 140 meters north of the square . To the north of it was the Heinrich-Heine-Strasse border crossing in the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989 .

history

Moritzplatz around 1900 on a colored postcard
Moritzplatz with the border crossing facilities in Prinzenstrasse (in front, West Berlin ) and Heinrich-Heine-Strasse (behind, East Berlin ), December 1989

Moritzplatz was built around 1860 with Oranienplatz and Heinrichplatz, laid out in a south-easterly direction, on the former Köpenicker Feld. With the rapid expansion of the city of Berlin, department stores, restaurants, houses and shops were built on the square. It was considered one of the busiest shopping areas in Kreuzberg. A department store belonging to the Wertheim Group stood on the south-eastern flank until it was destroyed in World War II .

Due to the east-west S-Bahn planned by the former Reichsbahn from Anhalter Bahnhof via Moritzplatz to Görlitzer Bahnhof , the underground station in the middle section was already built as a tower station.

On the morning of February 3, 1945, Berlin was on the 1st and 3rd Air Division of the US Air Force of 937  bombers bombed out. The focus of the air attack was around the city ​​center of Berlin , in particular the Spittelmarkt , the Neanderviertel and Wallstrasse up to the Berlin City Palace . Moritzplatz was also hit. Roughly speaking, most of the old buildings remained standing east of the square, while new buildings were erected to the west of it, especially in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1970s, as part of the Berlin Senate's “clear-cut renovation policy” (working title: “Light, Air and Sun”), all of the remaining old buildings - except for some of the ones to the northeast of the square - were demolished; there are still many fallow land left to this day . One side of the square is waiting for a structurally adequate new space.

use

Moritzplatz is part of a mixed area with a high proportion of businesses. The street alignment and the three plazas Moritzplatz, Oranienplatz and Heinrichplatz were laid down in detail in the first development plan from 1843 and the Luisenstadt plan of 1862 revised by James Hobrecht . In the 1950s, the zoning plan became the basis for urban development. When, in the 1960s, the zoning plan based on the model of the car-friendly city became the tool of urban planners, a motorway bypass ( A 106 ) south of Oranienstrasse was planned. This planning blocked for decades the necessary rehabilitation of the remaining old buildings and left parts of Kreuzberg to an urban wasteland degenerated. It was not until the International Building Exhibition 1984/1987 that these plans were revised.

Bicycle traffic

Between 2012 and 2014, 150 accidents involving cycling were counted at Moritzplatz. In 2015 the road was reduced by one lane and the cycle path was widened to over three meters and marked in red in the area of ​​the entrances and exits of the roundabout. According to the traffic administration, the number of accidents involving cyclists then fell by 37 percent and the number of accidents in which people were injured fell by half. According to information from 2016, the cycle path was used by around 7,300 cyclists every day, which corresponds to 21 percent of the total traffic volume of the square. From one of 42 suggestions from the Berlin population, the youth department of the Berlin BUND awarded Moritzplatz the "Golden Bell" as an outstanding example of successful traffic management in the "Street" category as part of the 1st Berlin Bicycle Prize.

Well-known companies

The construction house (1st and 2nd construction section) on Moritzplatz

The Wertheim department store mentioned above was on the southeast side of the square . The Prinzessinnengärten were created on the former Wertheim site in 2009 .

On the southwest side of the square was a house belonging to the Aschinger-Bierquelle Actien-Gesellschaft . There, the textile factory Ertex was typical of the time in the 1970s exposed aggregate concrete - finished parts built. The Berlin piano factory C. Bechstein moved into this building at the end of the 1980s . At the beginning of the 21st century, the Bechstein company moved out after production was relocated to Seifhennersdorf in Saxony . A large part of the property was used by the Visolux company for a few years. In 2009 the property with the former factory building was bought by Moritzplatz 1 Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH . In cooperation with the Modulor company, a creative and artist house was built here, which was opened in June 2011. In mid-May 2011, the traditional Aufbau-Verlag moved into the building, which also gave the house its new name “ Aufbau Haus ”. The design academy berlin - SRH University for Communication and Design with the Institute for Ludology has also been located in this building complex since 2014.

See also

Web links

Commons : Moritzplatz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lorenz Vossen: Berlin's best bike path leads around Moritzplatz. In: morgenpost.de . Retrieved January 13, 2017 .
  2. ^ Website construction house
  3. ^ Website of the Institute for Ludology

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 13 ″  N , 13 ° 24 ′ 39 ″  E