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Friedrich-city expanded towards the
north and south. The “Oranienburger Tor” became the
northern customs district and “Hallesches Tor” became
the southern customs district. Manufacturers settled there, while
royal officials settled in Friedrich Strasse's middle. Three architectural
highlights were added: the "Carree", which was later to
become the “Pariser Platz”, the "Oktogon"
(Leipziger Platz) and the "Rondell" at the “Hallesches
Tor”, which was modelled on the "Piazza del Popolo".
After the liberation wars in 1815, the “Rondell” was
renamed “Belle-Alliance-Platz”, and in 1947 renamed
in “Mehringplatz”. The peace column was erected by Cantian
and C.D. Rauch in 1843.
After Friedrich-city's expansion and
the installation of the "Rondell", the Friedrich Strasse
was Berlin's most important north-south axis and the only thoroughfare
in the royal city which was bounded by two city gates.
When King Ludwig XIV forced the Huguenots
to leave France in 1685, Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm offered
them "a free and safe retreat in the entire country and provinces",
and gave them money and passports. The Huguenots spurred trade and
commerce and integrated themselves at Friedrich the Great's court,
influencing Prussian virtues for more than a century.
Chorus lines were at their height
in the Apollo Theatre and Metropol Theatre until the 1920's. The
Komische Oper, the Admiralspalast and the Schauspielhaus (which
later became the Friedrichstadtpalast) were the embodiment of light
entertainment.
After 1840, however, living conditions
worsened so much due to the population explosion, that the Bourgeoisie
began to protest against the authority's arbitrariness. The people
demanded freedom of speech and press, amnesty for the politically
persecuted and political equality, regardless of one's wealth, class,
or religion.
King Friedrich Wilhelm IV ended the March revolution's uprising
by having his subjects shot at in the Friedrich Strasse.
During the Wilhelminian period, the
Friedrich Strasse - along with the Leipziger Strasse and Unter den
Linden - became the heart of Berlin.
A legendary shopping street emerged. Banks and insurance companies
settled there, and the "newspaper district" flourished
in the southern part of the Friedrich Strasse. Thirty-six daily
political newspapers were published there in 1900.
In 1882, the train station Friedrich
Strasse was inaugurated as a grand architectural feat. It became
the Friedrich Strasse's lifeblood and cultural centre, which provided
amusement in its hotels, cafes, nightly swimming pools, vaudevilles
and concerts, bars, restaurants and cinemas.
The "Coffee House Tradition"
was started by the Wiener Café in the Kaisergalerie, the
Café Burger and Café Kranzler.
Many honky-tonk bars emerged and the Berlin beauties of the night
strolled there.
When the emperor resigned in 1918,
and Karl Liebknecht declared the "Räte-Republik",
life in the Friedrich Strasse continued in spite of the siege.
By the end of the 1920s, along with the German branch of Metro Goldwyn
Mayer 70 percent of all film production companies had settled in
the Friedrich Strasse. In 1936, 36 cinemas in the Friedrich Strasse
showed movies from all around the world. Among these is the second
oldest cinema of Berlin: the "Scala". (There in 2002/03
Kunstwelt e.V. invited international artists to discuss the Friedrich
Strasse for the "KunstWinter-Berlin" exhibition).
In the 1930s, the NS-movement started
the forceful displacement of Jews living in Berlin. Jewish doctors,
lawyers, civil servants and merchants as well as the wine- and delicatessen
store Kempinski & Co. had settled in the Friedrich Strasse (making
about 10 percent of the population).
Allied bombing in Word War II distroyed
many of the beautiful buildings. From 1949 to 1989, GDR officials/
functionaries glorified themselves in the Friedrich Strasse. The
Admiralspalast became the political stage for Bertolt Brecht and
Helene Weigel. The train station Friedrich Strasse turned into a
transit train station, and the "Tränenpalast" (Palace
of Tears) became the embodiment of Berlin's and Germany's division.
In the course of the workers’
revolt in the GDR on June 17th 1953, American and Soviet tanks stood
opposite each other in the Friedrich Strasse, creating a credible
threat of force at the former Allies sector line, Checkpoint Charlie.
From that time on, Checkpoint Charlie became a border crossing between
two world systems, and, after completion of the Berlin Wall, the
symbol of the Cold War.
The Mehringplatz in the city's western
part was rebuilt as a residential and business area by Hans Scharoun
and Werner Düttmann in the 1970s. In the 1980s a competing
"Platten-bau" (tower block) - shopping district was built
in the East.
Following the fall of the Wall in
1989, these new and barely finished buildings were replaced during
the construction boom by sophisticated and stylish department stores
such as Quartier 206 and Galeries Lafayette.
In the past few years and after a
long time of neglect, the southern Friedrich-city has been receiving
an upgrade through the construction of new buildings such as the
"Berliner Ärztekammer" (Medical Association of Berlin),
"Landes-Arbeitsamt" (State Employment Office), Convention
Hall and Hotel Angleterre. Numerous visitors heading to the Jewish
Museum stream out of the subway station and cross the Mehringplatz.
In the spirit of the Friedrich
Strasse’s exciting and moving past, and as a result of patronage
and sponsorship, the Friedrich Strasse is becoming a cosmopolitan
connecting idea.
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