YOU ARE HERE: THE CHILDREN OF KREUZBERG

Strolling through the Vanished Berlin

You cannot look at this group of kids without smiling yourself. How lucky for us that Herr Peter Plewka, passionate visual archivist of Kreuzberg, had his photo and postcard collection passed into the capable hands of the local Museum Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.

Gathered in front of the house where they lived in 1924, delightened to be portrayed with their friends, these kids would be forever 4, 5 or 10. Hopeful, happy, content just to be alive. Fifteen years later, when their grownup lives had only just began, the world around them would begin to crumble and burn.

But not their house. Incredibly, Hornstraße 16 in Berlin-Kreuzberg survived the war. As did most of what is a rather short but uniquely charming street.

Planned as the original Yorckstraße (today’s, with its odd angles and curves, is but an afterthought), it now connects the junction of Yorckstraße and Großbeerenstraße with Möckernstraße at the foot of Gleisdreickpark.

Perhaps a nice idea for your Sunday walk? Some of those children might have even lived there after the war. And so might some of their descendants still be there at the same address…

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