It was renamed after a hostel erected in 1748 by the order of King Frederick II of Prussia, the Invalidenhaus, which served the veterans that fought in the Silesian Wars.

Today the remaining parts of this building house offices for the Federal Ministry of Economics.

On western Invalidenstraße was the site of the notorious Moabit cell prison and large barracks of the Prussian Uhlans (Uhlanenkaserne).

Nearby on August 24, 1961 Günter Litfin attempting to flee to the west was shot by East German border troops, becoming the second victim at the Berlin Wall erected eleven days before.

Beyond the Sandkrugbrücke in Moabit the former Hamburger Bahnhof train station has been converted into the Museum für Gegenwart.