YOU ARE HERE: MÜHLENGRABEN
Strolling Through Vanished Berlin
Until eleven years ago, when a new cupola had been installed on top of Berlin’s Stadtschloß replica, this view would have been a tough one to place on the map.
You could have passed this place a hundred times - and, if you live in Berlin, you most likely have - without recognising it. And who can blame you? Not even one thing captured by F.A. Schwartz on that sunny day in 1865 or 1870 (sources differ) survives until today.
You are in a very central place - standing on the roof or in a window of a house in the old Spreestraße. To find it on the map today, you must look for “Sperlingsgasse” instead.
The waterway before you is the historic Mühlengraben (Mill Ditch/Canal), which used to run between the Spreekanal at today’s Sperlingsgasse and the vanished city mills, or Werdersche Mühlen. The mills stood next to the Royal Palace and were demolished in 1876, only to be replaced by a popular cafe - Cafe Helms - and then by the gigantomaniac National Memorial for Kaiser Wilhelm I.
By the way, Friedrichswerder - Werder is literally “an island on the river or another waterway” - is a historic Berlin district to the west of today’s Schleusenbrücke, or “Lock Bridge”. Hence Werderscher Markt and Friedrichswerdersche Kirche. Both tongue twisters for the uninitiated.
The Mühlengraben existed until the Second World War swept a large part of off the face of the Earth. With no mills to feed and - sadly - no river lidos to house its water was no longer needed. New urban planning concept - East German authorities wished to build their Staatsratsgebäude (State Council Building) on the site - became the last nail in the ditch’s coffin. It would be filled in, the whole site between Friedrichsgracht, Sperlingsgasse and Brüderstraße planed and any remaining buildings (albeit there were not many left) demolished.
Today the Staatsratsgebäude with the historic Eosander Portal facing the Stadtschloß (the portal is a memento from the original Berlin royal Palace, kept by the DDR because in 1918 its balcony was where Karl Liebknecht announced the birth of the republic) and its generous garden are occupied by the EMST or the “European School of Management and Technology”.
A group of passionate fans of river lidos are fighting to have the section of the Spreekanal where the old Mühlengraben lidos used to be closed off for swimmers again. And out of all the changes and refurbishments that this part of Berlin-Mitte has been undergoing for years, this could become the most welcome improvement. I, for once, would be delighted to be able to look at the replica of the Stadtschloß from this perspective - as a declared non-fan of the project, I could simply swim away, making a bigger splash.
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