21. Berlin
“The year is 1737. The place is the westward edge of Berlin. A sector is being created to provide an ordered reality for a newly emerging urban aristocracy. It will symbolize the emergence of German culture from rural feudalism into an appearance of ‘enlightenment’ and reason. At the same time, the last expansion of the fortification that had been closed the city since its foundation 1237 is being set out. The first ordering of a nondescript piece of land will become both the actual and conceptual reference for a range of political and social divisions that will follow. It is the projection of an octagonal figure onto the open fields. The name in German is ‘Achteck’, or eight corners… In the centre, between the forest edge and the octagon… will be a customs wall, three metres high, constructed to tax trade and regulate entry into the city… It establishes a line that will ultimately divide the city…
A series of new districts had been laid out on the west of what had remained a largely mediaeval city. They were formed in intense grid patterns, unrelieved by open space or public monument. The district to the southwest was named Friedrichstadt, and the expansion of 1737 advanced the city wall and the idea of the new city sufficiently far to establish three great places at the three major gates: on the south a circle marked the Hallesches Gate, on the north a square marked the Brandenburg Gate, and in between, on the west, an octagon marked the Potsdam Gate, the entry into the city from the road to Potsdam. Square, circle, octagon – these self-conscious embellishments were to represent a higher level of thought than the grid of the military surveyor.” *
From its earliest settlements around an island on the River Spree flowing into the River Havel in Spandau, the combined Berlin and Cölln had coerced in mediaeval times to become the Principality of Brandenburg ‘the Prince’s Capital’.
It was these developments, as outlined by Alan Balfour above, that were to reshape the city in the 18th century by giving it formal structure with creation of axes of the main Avenues that were to connect these three geometrically determined places and their landmarks.
Significant waves of further development were undertaken later in the 19th century by Schinkel under the Prussian Building Commission that consolidated urbanised areas.
With the beginning of industrialisation, growth in both population and production also led to growth in new suburban areas.
Following the interruption and upheaval of World War I, the new Weimar Government considerably extended the size of the capital with new surrounding districts during the 20th century ‘Roaring 20s’.
With the grandiose plans of the National Socialists for Greater Berlin, these were never realised however following defeat and as most of the existing city was destroyed during World War II.
After the Allies victory, such idealised rebirth of the city was blunted by the division of the city by the victors into three Western Sectors (managed by the USA, UK & France) and one Eastern Sector by the Soviets which was to create division and separation of the city for the next 45 years.
But in 1990 with eventual reunification, a huge rebuilding programme was able to commence. With reconstruction of vital infrastructure and improvement of the transport networks, entire districts were rebuilt after much deliberation, especially around Mitte that has emerged as the centre of the city again.
Here at the junction of the axes of Unter der Linden and Friedrich Strasse, this has pivoted the re-unified city.
Those three above-mentioned featured places of firstly Brandenburger Tor at square Pariser Platz at the western end of the long Unter den Linden avenue, next octagonal Leipziger Platz and adjoining
Potsdamer Platz and Strasse, and then Hallesches Tor by circular Mehring Platz at the southern end of Friedrich Strasse, have anchored the centre again which has integrated the urban grid and fabric of Central Berlin to create emergent areas that have re-established the former ‘order’ of this historic city.
*Alan Balfour – Berlin, the Politics of Order – Rizzoli, 1990.
