Wilhelmplatz

Under their influence, the building commission decided on mandatory, narrowly defined guidelines so that the city would give off a harmonious, integrated feel.

[2] In 1737, for the first time, a Plan of the Royal Capital of Berlin demarcates a public square located in the northern third of the street (as it was drawn until the 19th century) opening up from its eastern side.

The origin of its name is the Prussian "Soldier King" Frederick William I, who had an especially heavy influence on the architecture and expansion of the northern part of Wilhelmstraße.

[3] Early plans already dictated a wide connection from the east side of the square to Mohrenstraße, "Am Wilhelmplatz", later (mid-1800s) to be renamed Zietenplatz.

[6] The newly featured area was dominated by Gerlach and Horst's (believed to be their work) Palais Marschall on the square's west side (No.

The widening of the throughway to Wilhelmplatz – later Zietenplatz – was clearly intentionally conceived so as to allow a sweeping view of the grandiose structure as far as one ventured eastward.

They were fashioned in the style of a baroque decorative garden, but also reaped plentiful fruit and vegetables for sale on the Berlin markets.

[9] The first building erected (in 1737 for General Major Karl Ludwig Truchsess von Waldburg) was the Ordenspalais, serving as the seat of the Order of Saint John (Johanniterorden) on the northern side of the square.

Frederick William I had to come to grips with the fact that, in order to populate the area, some corporations, guilds, state institutions and societies would need to resettle themselves from the southern part of the street, where they normally frequented.

[11] Accordingly, a gold and silver manufacturer set up shop in the southwest corner of Wilhelmplatz at Wilhelmstraße 79, which had been built according to Gerlach's plans from 1735 to 1737.

Schwerin and Winterfeldt posed in an antique manner with Roman clothing, while Seydlitz and Keith wore contemporary uniforms.

The two pieces, done by notable Berlin sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow, depicted Hans Joachim von Zieten and Leopold I, the prince of Anhalt-Dessau, nicknamed "Alter Dessauer".

The statue of Zieten was supposed to be erected on Donhöffplatz (also in Mitte, though no longer there today), while the memorial for the prince had already stood since 1800 on the southwest corner of the Lustgarten.

[14] Based on advice from Christian Daniel Rauch regarding the vulnerability of the materials, the statues were replaced with bronze copies made by August Kiß in 1857.

[15] Though both the marble originals and the bronze versions survived World War II, they were hidden from view of the public for decades in different depots.

The bronze copies of the memorials depicting Zieten and Anhalt-Dessau were erected on U-Bahn Island on the lateral axis of the former Wilhelmplatze in 2003 and 2005, respectively.

In the following decades, Radziwiłł held one of the leading Berlin salons here and, as a passionate admirer of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, on May 24, 1820, made his home the site of one of the first performances of Faust I.

[22] The former Palais Marschall, which had already seen its owner switch multiple times during the 18th century, was acquired in 1800 by the rather clandestine Minister of Foreign Affairs Otto Carl Friedrich von Voß.

")[20] By the end of the 18th century, it was already becoming clear that that Prussian nobility was often not financially capable of long-term maintenance of the many impressive Palais along the northern Wilhelmstraße.

As a result, the norm became individual sales to representatives of the emergent citizenry, who used the buildings primarily for economic purposes such as manufacturing, publishing and renting.

The administrative and spatial separation from court and government that had settled in during the second half of the 18th century was reinforced after the coalition's victory in the German Campaign of 1813.

It was important that these separate organizations remained in close contact with one another so, over the course of the 19th century, a Prussian (then Imperial German) government quarter began to form under the metonym "Wilhelmstraße".

[25] In 1844, the Prussian state also took over the gold and silver manufacturer's greatly altered building (production had taken place in a newly added backyard annex) at Wilhelmstraße 79.

[27] Founded as the Institution of the North German Confederation in 1870, the newly created Ministry of Foreign Affairs temporarily settled in on the south side of Wilhelmplatz.

Modelling its outer form on Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, the architects used an otherwise eclectic style, connecting ornamental elements of the Renaissance with classicism.

[29] On the other side of the street, long time occupant Ministry of Trade, Industry and Public Works also began to extend its reach beyond its original 1848 tenancy in the former gold and silver manufacturer's building (No.

[30] The greatest influence on the continued development of the area came from Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's decision regarding the official residence of the chancellory.

An 1874 law stipulated that the exorbitantly high price of two million marks would be covered with French reparation payments from the Franco-Prussian War.

Out of speculative reasons, they developed a plan to tear down the Palais and make the grounds into a cul-de-sac, which would be accessible to Königgrätzer Straße, today's Ebertstraße.

[32] During the Nazi era, the Ordenspalais became the seat of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and Adolf Hitler commissioned Albert Speer to construct the new Reich Chancellery across the square.