FRIEDRICHSTRASSE

Description

Essentials about Friedrichstraße in brief

Friedrichstraße is one of the most famous and interesting streets in Berlin. With a length of 3.5 kilometers and its dead straight course through the districts of Mitte and Kreuzberg, it is one of the most important north-south traffic axes in Berlin. Like hardly any other street in the capital, Friedrichstraße has symbolic character for the eventful history of the German capital.

The history of Friedrichstraße

Once the street was the amusement mile of the city, then border control point in the divided Berlin and finally shopping and strolling mile in the reunited capital. It is named after Elector Frederick III, under whose reign the construction of Berlin’s suburbs with regular streets began at the end of the 17th / beginning of the 18th century.

Until the Second World War there were pleasure palaces, theaters and vaudevilles here – Friedrichstraße was the notorious amusement mile of Berlin. After the division of the city, Friedrichstraße was also cut through by the Berlin Wall. Even today, a replica border house can be found on the site of the famous border checkpoint “Checkpoint Charlie“. A second border crossing in GDR times was the Friedrichstraße train station. Today, an exhibition about the border crossing can be seen in the so-called “Tränenpalast“.

Shopping and entertainment on Friedrichstraße

Since reunification, the face of Friedrichstraße has changed massively due to countless large construction projects. Above all, the street has been transformed into Berlin’s main shopping mile. Shopaholics can spend many hours in the Friedrichstadtpassagen, the Galeries Lafayette in Quartier 207 and the Passage Quartier 206 (preferably with a well-filled wallet). But the former amusement function of Friedrichstraße has not been completely lost. The northern part of the street is still home to the Friedrichstadt-Palast and the Admiralspalast, which offer spectacular revue shows.