The Friedrichstraße is a major culture and shopping
street in central Berlin, forming the core of the Friedrichstadt neighborhood
and giving the name to Berlin Friedrichstraße station. It runs from the
northern part of the old Mitte district (north of which it is called
Chausseestraße) to the Hallesches Tor in the district of Kreuzberg. This
downtown area is known for its posh real estate market and the campus of the
Hertie School of Governance. Due to its north-southerly direction, it forms
important junctions with the east-western axes, most notably with Leipziger
Straße and Unter den Linden. The U6 U-Bahn line runs underneath. During the
Cold War it was bisected by the Berlin Wall and was the location of Checkpoint
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 former Belle-Alliance-Platz at
the end of the Friedrichstraße, renamed Mehringplatz, were completely
demolished and replaced with a concrete housing and office development designed
by Hans 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; the Hotel Unter den Linden
(demolished 2006) and the original Lindencorso (demolished 1991) were the only
structures built during this time with the wider profile of the street in mind.
The Grand 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 of
German reunification in 1990, when the East German Plattenbau-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.
From 1992 until 1996, construction works took place for a six-building, $800
million, multi-use complex developed by Tishman Speyer, among others. The
buildings have a city-imposed height limit of about 100 feet. A number of
well-known architects contributed to the plans, including Jean Nouvel, who
designed the Galeries Lafayette department store (Quartier 207); Pei Cobb Freed
& Partners, who planned Quartier 206; and Oswald Mathias Ungers, who
created Quartier 205. Philip Johnson created parts of the American Business Center
at Checkpoint Charlie, a $751 million five-building complex of offices, shops
and apartments developed by Ronald Lauder and Central European Media
Enterprises. The redevelopment received mixed reviews. During the Cold War and
division of Berlin, the Friedrichstraße underground station, despite being
located in East Berlin, was utilized by two intersecting West Berlin S-Bahn
lines and the West 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-off ghost stations (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. In 2020, a section of Friedrichstraße was
closed off for motorized traffic during a five-month trial period with the
intent to revitalize urban space.
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