Kurfürstendamm

The City West is a unique development, known as a “place without history”; it quickly sprouted to become the unquestionable centre of a new kind of city. Only years before, the area had lacked a sense of neighbourhood, without a town hall or high street to speak of. It was not until 1882 that this area, called the “Neuer Westen” (New West) started to come together, heralded by the completion of a train station connecting the people of Berlin to a place that had been regarded as far outside the city limits. The Zoologischer Garten station encouraged people to visit two important destinations sitting to the west of the Tiergarten; the Berlin Zoo (opened 1844) and the Hippodrome (opened 1846).

The construction of Kurfürstendamm was a cornerstone of the rapid development of this district, which was separated by the Tiergarten from Berlin proper. Kurfürstendamm is built in the grand Parisian style, an imposing 53-metre-wide boulevard whose design is credited to an intervention by the Imperial Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. In 1882 the Kurfürstendamm-Gesellschaft (Kurfürstendamm Company) was established to engineer the road and develop the surrounding land, which stretched from the city and ended at a number of new mansions situated in the historic royal hunting grounds of Grunewald. The boulevard was completed on 5th May 1886. Its designer, Hugo Hanke, was a local politician and member of the Architekten-Verein zu Berlin, as well as a director of the Kurfürstendamm Company.

The main stretch of Kurfürstendamm extended for a good three kilometres between the Romanisches Forum at Auguste-Viktoria-Platz (Breitscheidplatz since 1947) and the western end at Lake Halensee. Both were important landmarks. The Romanisches Forum served as the highlight of urban development in the Neuer Westen, where the internationally regarded Romanisches Café became the epicentre of a vibrant artistic and cultural scene that shaped the character of the promenade. The terraces at Lake Halensee, known as “Lunapark” from 1909, offered amusements and attractions which brought countless day trippers.
 

Kurfürstendamm had quickly become a much sought-after address. Wealthy families and cultural figures moved into buildings with lavishly decorated façades and large elegant apartments. At street level, a thriving commercial community developed and the restaurant industry began to flourish. Tradespeople had started to move into the area, to escape the crowded centre of Berlin. An exciting feeling of dynamism in the “New West” has been stoked by the many theatres, cabarets and fledgling cinemas in the area, along with the completion of an electric streetcar network in 1900.

It became apparent that few people would invest in a road that tapered into the wilderness – and so a series of lavish villas were designed to elevate the status of Kurfürstendamm. In 1882, and with investment from Deutsche Bank, the Kurfürstendamm Company was granted a 234-hectare area of the Grunewald to construct a suburb. The development stretched between Lake Halensee and Lake Hundekehlesee, and it was the company’s core responsibility to construct and sell the properties. Building work progressed rapidly. By 1897, 205 of the villas were occupied, accompanied by the birth of a lively social scene, the exclusive preserve of the upper class.
 

The new precinct was developing rapidly, with changes marked by the opening of the Zoologischer Garten station and the establishment of the Royal Technical University in the nearby city of Charlottenburg. Meanwhile, the bustling government and administrative district of Berlin was also expanding, causing residents to move out of the city and into new areas such as Kurfürstendamm. New residents were welcomed by the smaller towns outside the city limits, especially by the local tax authorities, who remained independent until the formation of Greater Berlin in 1920.
 

After the Second World War, Kurfürstendamm would drastically change, with its magnificent buildings now lying in ruins. The Jewish population had been purged, and would not return. A strong desire to restore the district to its “golden age” quickly emerged, and to regain a reputation of international prominence. A period of reconstruction followed, focused on simple, straight­forward design, and car-oriented planning. Soon, Kurfürstendamm was once again a wonderful place to live. It was the centre of West Berlin until the fall of the Wall in 1989, and attracted tourists, cultural workers and flaneurs. In 1999, an urban masterplan for the area around Breitscheidplatz was set in motion. The “Plan for the City Center” was initiated by Hans Stimmann, the Senate Construction Director. Together with Alexanderplatz and Potsdamer Platz, this area was to be shaped by high-rise buildings as an expression of the resurgence of the reunified city.