SHORT STORY OF A SMALL STREET: KLEINE BURGSTRAßE

Kleine Burgstraße between Burgstraße and Heilig-Geist-Straße around 1875, captured by F.A. Schwartz (image in public domain).

Burgstraße is easy to find. Coming from Unter den Linden, head for the Berliner Dom and cross any of the two bridges flanking it from the east (Karl-Liebknecht-Brücke) or from the west (Friedrichsbrücke) connecting the Museumsinsel with the northern bank of the Spree, and there it is. But finding Kleine Burgstraße in Berlin-Mitte might be a bit of a challenge. "‘Kleine’ Burgstraße? Where is that?'“, I hear you ask.

I, your Berlin Companion, am here to help: if you go to Berlin-Mitte and stand on the Karl-Liebknecht-Brücke facing east, then squint your eyes, focus and swiftly travel back in time to 1875, this is what you will see before you instead of the high-rises and the multilane of Karl-Liebknecht-Straße.

Kleine Burgstraße on the 1862 map of Berlin (image from the 1862 “Birk-Plan” via ZLB Digital).

In 1887-1888 Kleine Burgstraße was demolished together with Brauhausstraße and Papenstraße to build a magnificent new street that would serve as an extension of Unter den Linden, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße.

Kleine Burgstraße replaced by Kaiser Wilhelm Straße on a section of the 1891 Sineck-Plan.

It is hard to believe that with the Stadtschloß - by 1875 four years into being the seat of the new German Kaiser! - only several hundreds meters away, this is what Berlin looked like in mid-nineteenth century.