- Friedrichstraße
The Friedrichstraße (IPA2|ˈfʀiːdʀɪçˌʃtʀaːsə) (lit. "Frederick Street") is a major culture and shopping street in central
Berlin , forming the core of the Friedrichstadt neighborhood. It runs from the northern part of the oldMitte district (north of which it is called Chausseestraße) to theHallesches Tor in the district ofKreuzberg . Due to its north-southerly direction, it forms important junctions with the east-western axes, most notably withLeipziger Straße andUnter den Linden . The U6 U-Bahn line runs underneath. During theCold War it was bisected by theBerlin Wall and was the location ofCheckpoint Charlie .As central Berlin's traditional shopping street, Friedrichstraße is three blocks east of the parallel
Wilhelmstraße , the historic heart of the old government quarter "(Regierungsviertel)" until 1945.The Friedrichstraße was badly damaged during
World War II and only partly rebuilt during the division of Berlin. The section in West Berlin was partly rebuilt as a residential street; in the late 1960s, the remains of the formerBelle-Alliance-Platz at the end of the Friedrichstraße, renamedMehringplatz , were completely demolished and replaced with a concrete housing and office development designed byHans Scharoun . Despite its central location, this area remains relatively poor.In the East Berlin section, plans were put into place to widen the street to four lanes as was done to the
Leipziger Straße ; theHotel Unter den Linden (demolished 2006) and the originalLindencorso (demolished 1991) were the only structures built during this time with the wider profile of the street in mind. TheGrand Hotel Berlin , East Germany's top 5-star hotel, was built across from the Hotel Unter den Linden in 1987. Further plans were drawn up for a rebuilding of the street, and construction was well underway at the time ofGerman reunification in 1990, when the East GermanPlattenbau -based construction was stopped and subsequently demolished; only a few buildings that were already complete and occupied were spared. The completed Berlin Casino building located at the corner of Leipziger Straße was torn down in 1994.Friedrichstraße was rebuilt in the 1990s, and at the time it was the city's largest construction project; work continues north of Friedrichstraße station. A number of well-known architects contributed to the plans, including
Jean Nouvel , who designed theGaleries Lafayette department store andPhilip Johnson , who created the American Business Center at Checkpoint Charlie. The redevelopment received mixed reviews, but the street once again became a popular shopping destination.During the
Cold War and division of Berlin, the Friedrichstraße underground station, despite being located inEast Berlin , was utilized by two intersectingWest Berlin S-Bahn lines and theWest Berlin subway line U6. The station served as a transfer point for these lines, and trains stopped there, although all other stations on these lines in East Berlin were sealed-offghost station s ("Geisterbahnhof"), where trains passed through under guard without stopping. At Friedrichstraße station, West Berlin passengers could transfer from one platform to another but could not leave the station without the appropriate papers. The section of the station open to West Berlin lines was heavily guarded and was sealed off from the smaller part of it serving as a terminus of the East Berlin S-Bahn and as a station for long-distance trains.External links
* [http://www.stadtpanoramen.de/berlin/friedrichstrasse.html Friedrichstraße] - Interactive 360° Panorama
* [http://www.friedrichstrasse.de/cms/cms/tablestruktur.php?a_k=0&lang=eng Friedrichstraße Homepage]
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