Oranienburger Vorstadt

Last updated
Coat of ArmsMap
Coat of arms of None.svg
Oranienburger Vorstadt.png

Map of central Berlin in 1884 showing
Oranienburger Vorstadt highlighted

Contents

Basic Information
City: Berlin
Borough: Mitte
Locality: Mitte and Gesundbrunnen
Area: ?
Population: ?
Coordinates: 52°32′N13°23′E / 52.533°N 13.383°E / 52.533; 13.383
Elevation:34 m (111 ft) above sea level
Neighborhoods in Berlin-Mitte: Old Colln [1] (with Museum Island [1a], Fisher Island [1b]), Alt-Berlin [2] (with Nikolaiviertel [2a]), Friedrichswerder [3], Neukolln am Wasser [4], Dorotheenstadt [5], Friedrichstadt [6], Luisenstadt [7], Stralauer Vorstadt (with Konigsstadt) [8], Alexanderplatz Area (Konigsstadt and Altberlin) [9], Spandauer Vorstadt [10] (with Scheunenviertel [10a]), Friedrich-Wilhelm-Stadt [11], Oranienburger Vorstadt [12], Rosenthaler Vorstadt [13] Stadtviertel in Berlin-Mitte.png
Neighborhoods in Berlin-Mitte: Old Cölln [1] (with Museum Island [1a], Fisher Island [1b]), Alt-Berlin [2] (with Nikolaiviertel [2a]), Friedrichswerder [3], Neukölln am Wasser [4], Dorotheenstadt [5], Friedrichstadt [6], Luisenstadt [7], Stralauer Vorstadt (with Königsstadt) [8], Alexanderplatz Area (Königsstadt and Altberlin) [9], Spandauer Vorstadt [10] (with Scheunenviertel [10a]), Friedrich-Wilhelm-Stadt [11], Oranienburger Vorstadt [12], Rosenthaler Vorstadt [13]

Oranienburger Vorstadt is a historic district of Berlin in what is now the northwestern part of Mitte and the adjacent Gesundbrunnen area, in the modern Mitte borough.

Geography

The former suburb was located between the Berlin-Spandau Ship Canal in the west (bordering Moabit) and the Brunnenstraße arterial road in the east. In the south it was confined by the 18th century Berlin Customs Wall (today marked by Torstraße and Hannoversche Straße), in the north it bordered on the Wedding area along the Panke River.

History

Borsig Company on Chausseestrasse, 1847 painting by Karl Eduard Biermann Maschinenbau-Anstalt Borsig, Berlin Chausseestrasse, 1847, Karl Eduard Biermann.jpg
Borsig Company on Chausseestraße, 1847 painting by Karl Eduard Biermann

The district derived its name from the Oranienburger Tor, a city gate in the Customs Wall from where the country road (present-day Chausseestraße) led northwestwards to the town of Oranienburg, thus the toponym's translation is about "suburb towards Oranienburg". The name appeared by 1824. A first settlement of immigrants arriving from the Upper Saxon Vogtland region arose in the mid 18th century on Ackerstraße near Rosenthaler Platz. In 1830 the suburb was incorporated into the city of Berlin.

From about 1800 the area on Chaussestraße and Invalidenstraße evolved to the industrial nucleus of Berlin, becoming the site of several ironworks and engineering shops, among them the August Borsig and Johann Friedrich Ludwig Wöhlert locomotive companies established in 1837 and 1842 respectively. Due to the many furnaces and smoke stacks, the quarter was colloquially called Feuerland by Berliners.

In 1842 the large Stettiner Bahnhof railway terminus opened on Invalidenstraße. By the 1880s most of the industrial sites had been relocated to the city's outskirts. After the German unification of 1871, Oranienburger Vorstadt was largely rebuilt as a densely settled residential area with numerous tenement houses (Mietskasernen).

The district ceased to exist as an administrational unit with the 1920 Greater Berlin Act. After World War II the Mitte part belonged to East Berlin, while the Gesundbrunnen territory was part of the French sector within West Berlin. In 1961 the Berlin Wall was erected along the border on Bernauer Straße. Since 1998 the Berlin Wall Memorial (Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer) marks the site.

Today it's customary to apply the name Oranienburger Vorstadt only to the part in the Mitte locality.

Main sights

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wedding (Berlin)</span> Quarter of Berlin in Germany

Wedding is a locality in the borough of Mitte, Berlin, Germany. It was a separate borough in the north-western inner city until it was fused with Tiergarten and Mitte in Berlin's 2001 administrative reform. At the same time the eastern half of the former borough of Wedding—on the other side of Reinickendorfer Straße—was separated as the new locality of Gesundbrunnen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mitte</span> Borough of Berlin in Germany

Mitte is the first and most central borough of Berlin. The borough consists of six sub-entities: Mitte proper, Gesundbrunnen, Hansaviertel, Moabit, Tiergarten and Wedding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moabit</span> Locality of Berlin in Germany

Moabit is an inner city locality in the borough of Mitte, Berlin, Germany. As of 2022, about 84,000 people lived in Moabit. First inhabited in 1685 and incorporated into Berlin in 1861, the former industrial and working-class neighbourhood is fully surrounded by three watercourses, which define its present-day border. Between 1945 and 1990, Moabit was part of the British sector of West Berlin and directly bordered East Berlin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernauer Straße</span> Street in Berlin

Bernauer Straße is a street of Berlin situated between the localities of Gesundbrunnen and Mitte, today both belonging to the Mitte borough. It runs from the Mauerpark at the corner of Prenzlauer Berg to the Nordbahnhof. The street's name refers to the town of Bernau bei Berlin, situated in Brandenburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berlin border crossings</span> Post-WWII crossings in divided Berlin, Germany

The Berlin border crossings were border crossings created as a result of the post-World War II division of Germany. Prior to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, travel between the Eastern and Western sectors of Berlin was completely uncontrolled, although restrictions were increasingly introduced by the Soviet and East German authorities at major crossings between the sectors. This free access, especially after the closure of the Inner German border, allowed the Eastern Bloc emigration and defection to occur. East German officials, humiliated by this mass defection, subsequently chose to erect the Berlin Wall in order to prevent residents from leaving East Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oranienburger Straße</span> Street in Berlin, Germany

Oranienburger Straße is a street in central Berlin. It is located in the borough of Mitte, north of the River Spree, and runs south-east from Friedrichstraße to Hackescher Markt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Invalidenstraße</span> Street in Berlin, Germany

The Invalidenstraße is a street in Berlin, Germany. It runs east to west for three kilometers (1.9 mi) through the districts of Mitte and Moabit. The street originally connected three important railway stations in the northern city centre: the Stettiner Bahnhof, the Hamburger Bahnhof and the Lehrter Bahnhof, the present-day Berlin Hauptbahnhof.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berlin Northern Railway</span> Railway line in Germany

The Berlin Northern Railway is a 223-kilometre-long main line route, that runs from Berlin via Neustrelitz and Neubrandenburg to Stralsund on the Baltic Sea coast. Nowadays, long-distance and regional traffic on the Nordbahn is routed at Hohen Neuendorf onto the Berlin Outer Ring to the Karower Kreuz and on to Berlin Main Station or Berlin-Lichtenberg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mitte (locality)</span> Quarter of Berlin in Germany

Mitte is a central section of Berlin, Germany, in the eponymous borough of Mitte. Until 2001, it was itself an autonomous district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gesundbrunnen (Berlin)</span> Quarter of Berlin in Germany

Gesundbrunnen is a locality (Ortsteil) of Berlin in the borough (Bezirk) of Mitte. It was created as a separate entity during the 2001 administrative reform, formerly the eastern half of the former Wedding district and locality. Gesundbrunnen has the highest percentage of non-German residents of any Berlin locality, at 35.1% as of the end of 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berlin Old Nordbahnhof</span> Passenger railway terminus in Berlin, Germany

The old Berlin Nordbahnhof was a short-lived passenger railway terminus in Berlin, Germany. It was situated in Prenzlauer Berg, close to the borders with Gesundbrunnen, in the area of the "Mauerpark".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inner Ring Road, Berlin</span>

The Berlin Inner Ring road is a beltway route of major roads around the historic city centre of Berlin encompassing the boroughs of Mitte, Pankow and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. It is named "Inner Ring" to distinguish it from both the wider City Ring (Stadtring) road including the Bundesautobahn 100 sections and the outer Berlin Ring orbital motorway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berlin Customs Wall</span> Ring wall in Berlin (1737–1860)

The Berlin Customs Wall was a ring wall around the historic city of Berlin, between 1737 and 1860; the wall itself had no defence function but was used to facilitate the levying of taxes on the import and export of goods (tariffs), which was the primary income of many cities at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schwedter Straße</span>

Schwedter Straße, named after the town of Schwedt/Oder, is an inner-city road in the Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg districts of Berlin. It partially forms the border between both quarters and crosses Mauerpark at the site of the former Berlin Wall.

Feuerland was a popular 19th-century designation for the industrial nucleus of Berlin. It was located in the historic Oranienburger Vorstadt section of Berlin in today’s district Berlin-Mitte. The word literally means “land of fire”, but it is also a play on the German name for Tierra del Fuego.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ackerstraße</span> Street in Berlin, Germany

The Ackerstraße is a street in Berlin which runs northwest from near the Liesenstraße – Scheringstraße traffic circle in Gesundbrunnen to Invalidenstraße, where it turns south, terminating at the Linienstraße in Mitte.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olga Segler</span> Both one of the earliest and the oldest victims of the Berlin Wall

Olga Segler was a German woman who died of injuries as a result of crossing the Berlin Wall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spandauer Vorstadt</span> Sub-neighborhood

Spandauer Vorstadt is a historic district in what is now the Mitte district of Berlin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinrich Wilhelm Krausnick</span>

Heinrich Wilhelm Krausnick was a German lawyer and Lord Mayor of Berlin in two terms from 1834 until 1848, and again in 1850 until 1862.

References

    Leyden, Friedrich (1933). Gross-Berlin. Geographie der Weltstadt (in German). Breslau: Hirt.