TODAY IN BERLIN: THE GREAT ELECTOR IS NOT AMUSED

March 12, 1684

Berlin’s town hall (left) and Nikolaikirche (before Hermann Blankenstein gave it a second belfry for balance) in 1688. Fragment of Schultz’sche Plan 1688 with Berlin-Cölln still as a fortress.

On this day Elector Friedrich Wilhelm, master of the March of Brandenburg better known as the Großer Kurfürst (the name of a popular Berlin boulevard, Kurfürstendamm? Electors’ Road), introduced some pretty strict street cleaning and maintanance regulations for his unruly subjects to obey.