Wilhelmine Ring (Berlin)

The Wilhelmine Ring is the name for a belt of distinctive multi-occupancy rental housing blocks constructed in the second half of the 19th century around the historic city center of Berlin.

The Wilhelmine Ring comprises large parts of the Berlin subdistricts Wedding, Gesundbrunnen, Prenzlauer Berg, Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg, Neukölln, Schöneberg, Tiergarten, Moabit and Charlottenburg.

[1] The commencement of large-scale German industrialization in the latter part of the 19th century led to a pressing need for labor, which was met by a strong rural exodus favoring Berlin, where abundant jobs could be found.

Since the developers had to co-finance the street-access infrastructure, with costs calculated on the basis of the width of the street frontage, this part of the building was relatively narrow, the rest being taken up by the side and rear wings.

Although the ring is still characterized by high density construction and a scarcity of open spaces, the flats are popular because of their historic character and nearness to the city center.

The railway line around Berlin on an 1885 map. The dark area at center right is the developed part of the city, which was long constricted by the customs wall
Typical Wilhelmine Ring building with shops on the ground floor and apartments in the upper storeys, from a postcard featuring Wedding around 1900