Böttcherstraße

Only about 100 m (330 ft) long, it is famous for its unusual architecture and ranks among the city's main cultural landmarks and visitor attractions.

Most of its buildings were erected between 1922 and 1931, primarily as a result of the initiative of Ludwig Roselius, a Bremen-based coffee-trader, who charged Bernhard Hoetger with the artistic supervision over the project.

[2] Roselius, a sympathiser of National Socialism, pursued Völkisch-Nordic cultural ideas influenced by the ideologists Julius Langbehn and Herman Wirth, involving a belief in the irreplaceable value of the Nordic race.

"[3] And: "I want, and that is the deepest aim of what was created in Böttcherstraße, to break the spell of the banishment the ill-informed Romans sentenced our people to, which still weighs upon us.

"[4] Although Roselius and Hoetger paid tribute to Hitler as the "Bringer of Light" on a relief at the entrance, the Führer rejected this variant of völkisch art in a Reichsparteitag speech about cultural matters ("Kulturtagung im Opernhaus") on 9 September 1936, in which he dismissively referred to Boettcher-Straßen-Kultur ("culture in the style of the Böttcherstraße").

[citation needed] Roselius tried to become a member of the NSDAP twice but his application was rejected twice due to his 'degenerate art' and independence that the Nazis found disconcerting.

[6] In October 1936 Ludwig Roselius injected more capital into Focke-Wulf aircraft company thereby increasing his shareholding to 46% and regular board meetings were held in the Boettcherstrasse.

In the years after World War I, further offices, the HAG-Haus, the Haus St. Petrus, and the House of the Seven Lazy Brothers were constructed.