The street is approximately 1,500 metres (0.93 miles) long and lies in a southeasterly direction from the Perleberger Strasse near the Fenn Bridge, to the west of, and parallel to the disused Lehrter railway complex which was disbanded in the 1950s.

After the Second World War, the complex was no longer needed and from the 1970s, the empty houses being on the edge of West Berlin near the wall fell largely abandoned and became partly derelict.

[3] By the 1970s due to a plan to lay an urban expressway through the neighbourhood; the late 19th and early 20th century, partly derelict, traditional working-class tenements, warehouses, and factories were mostly empty.

The largest building in the ensemble – the former uniform clothing factory at Lehrterstraße 57 – was converted and refurbished by Sauerbruch Hutton, an international architecture and design firm, between 2008 and extended in 2010.

Outside, the historic listed brick facade remains while inside, the most modern techniques and materials for optimal use have been employed in order to address today's requirements.

[4] On the eastern side of the middle section of the road between the sports facilities at the Poststadion and the Europacity on the 3.7 hectares of the former railway depot of the since 1952 obsolete Lehrter station, a new city subdistrict, Mittenmang, with about 1000 rental and condominiums and the associated urban infrastructure, is being developed as of 2018.

[15] The nearest U-Bahn station (tube/subway) for the northern end is Birkenstrasse on Line U9, about a 15 minute walk from the street's junction with the Perlebergerstrasse.