8

A burial ground without crosses

“This is a land of heathen, darker and harsher that Afrika or India” thus fulminated pastor Hermann Priebe in 1929 and referred to the graveyard of the Freireligiöse Gemeinde (Free religious community) at the Pappelallee in today’s Helmholzkiez (Helmholz quarter): “It belongs to proletarian libertines who adhere the most blatant atheism and are sworn enemies of all religion …”
In fact, “The world rules itself with laws eternal” is the guiding principle in the ceremonial hall and this describes a fundamental spiritual attitude that included the avoidance of religious convictions and not least of the church itself as an institution. After its founding on 1845, apart from excommunicated or seceded members of the Catholic church it was reform-minded Protestants and secular Jews who became members of the Freireligiöse Gemeinde. Later, social democrats like Heinrich Roller were important members. Roller in 1875 invented his own stenography system which he called Weltkurzschrift (World Shorthand). Roller’s signet, a winged quill, graces his striking grave that is flanked by the sculpture of a woman holding a pen.
In the mid-1800s, shorthand was the fastest and most modern method of taking notes. Since the Freireligiöse Gemeinde was deemed suspicious and therefore was subjected to permanent police surveillance, Roller’s invention was of particular importance. The community hired a stenographer who prepared minutes of all meetings as a measure against false reports.

7

… he who digs in the after-work hours and spends his holidays … (Erich Weinert)

When the allotments at the Bornholmer Strasse were founded, it was plain hunger that forced the citizens of Berlin into self-supply. Without prior consultation they took over the area on top of a landfill in 1896 and set up the first small gardens for potatoes, vegetables and chicken. When the Paul Gerhardt Church was built in 1908 the spoil was brought here and scattered unevenly over the terrain; until today differences of up to one meter can be noticed.
In 1919 the garden colony was finally registered at the district court under the name “Hungriger Wolf” (Hungry Wolf) and a garden café completed the activities in the Golden Twenties.
After the bombing of World War II, the well of the colony became the water supply for the entire, severely destroyed quarter. Due to the erection of the Berlin Wall the gardens fell into oblivion. The possession of ladders was no longer permitted so close to the border due to the flight risk – imaging the challenge this posed for the fruit harvest!
Fortunately, this is history. Today the cherries blossom not only in “Bornholm” but also along the Kirschbaumallee (Cherry tree alley). Out of joy about the fall of the wall and the reunification Japanese citizens after a generous donation campaign provided Japanese Lowering Cherries that were planted along the course of the wall.

6

Wind craft

After 1700 the population of Berlin increased again. The supply of flour and bread therefore becomes more difficult. The few windmills in the city prove to be insufficient and thus Frederick II in 1748 gives order to built additional windmills outside the city limits. A suitable building ground is found at the fringes of the Barnim where grapes had been cultivated before.
In 1748-49 the miller Christoph Müncheberg built the first two windmills in the area of modern Metzer Strasse 15/16. Soon, more windmills followed and this resulted in the densely clustered mills mutually blocking the wind. War damages and fires are further obstacles for the millers, as is the ongoing expansion of Berlin towards the North. New housing areas emerged and one after the other the mills cease to work. The last windmill in Prenzlauer Berg is closed down in 1900.
Despite this fact, the crest of the former district Prenzlauer Berg until today consists of four black windmill vanes on yellow ground.

5

From the corner bar to the Café Achteck

Public toilets in Berlin are an invention of the 19th century. Until then people piddled from the bridges (though this was a punishable offense) or into a urine barrel set up at one of the portals of the city palace.
Finally, the problem was placed in front of the magistrate. The head of police, Madai, had the first urinals erected in the early 1870s; set up in pairs, they were called “Madai temple” by the public and were meant to be used by men only. The first public toilets for women were only established in selected public buildings and in two school buildings due to „considerations of security and decency”. The earliest among them was the one in the Red City Hall (Rotes Rathaus) in 1874. Others were set up from ca. 1882 in public parks like the Tiergarten by private entrepreneurs.
The need for convenient public conveniences is generally underrated. As early as 1877 the city administration decides to introduce new, larger models. The councillor for building and construction, Carl Theodor Rospatt (1831–1901) in 1878 is responsible for the efficient, well executed design of seven stands based on an octagonal plan; its decorated cast iron walls made use of the quickly developing iron casting facilities in Berlin. This was the birth of the “Café Achteck”.
The idea to raise fees gave rise in the 1870s to an entirely new line of business. In 1920 there are about 142 of these public toilets in Greater Berlin. Today, 30 of them are still existing in the city. The Café Achteck at Senefelder Platz is, however, a reconstruction.

04

Schalom

On the 29. July 1945 the first Jewish bridal couple in Berlin got married in the synagogue in Rykestrasse. It was the sign of hope and of a new beginning.
Around 1910 the registered inhabitants of the district Prenzlauer Berg included the third-largest group of Jewish citizens in Berlin – 19000 people. They set up a multifaceted Jewish infrastructure with synagogues, welfare institutions, children’s homes, schools, clubs and shops.
Two shields of David grace the wrought-iron gate of the double gateway of the largest German synagogue inaugurated in 1904. The building, shaped like a Neo-Romanesque basilica with three naves, followed the design of churches built in brick in the March of Brandenburg. Apart from orthodox clerics liberal rabbis officiated, too. In1930 a woman was elected member of the community council – in 1935, Regine Jonas became the first ordained female Rabbi in the world.
The front building housed the III. Primary School of the registered “Jewish School Association” and the VI. Religious School of the Jewish community with approximately 500 pupils. After 1933 the school aimed to prepare students for an emigration to Palestine. Lilli Henoch who was murdered near Riga, in her time a famous athlete and world record holder, was the p. e. teacher of this school until its dissolution.

…

3

Käthe

Children often climb the bronze Käthe at Kollwitz Platz – and most residents appreciate that. By giving his sculpture a particularly wide and low pedestal, the sculptor Gustav Seitz intentionally enabled an easy, effortless access to his larger-than-life, sitting figure.
This proximity to the people would certainly have been appreciated by Käthe Kollwitz, too – even including the shiny nose polished by the many hands that touched it.
In 1956 the berlin magistrate commissioned the sculptor but obviously they expected a heroic, fierce figure. The image of an old, restful woman consequently was much criticised.
The topics of graphic artist and sculptor Käthe Kollwitz were human suffering and poverty. She lived and worked with her husband, the doctor Karl Kollwitz, in Weißenburger Strasse 25; the street was later renamed Kollwitzstrasse. Here, she had one of her studios while he ran a Statuary Health Insurance Surgery where he treated the poor for free. In 1946, in honour of the artist, the Wörther Platz was renamed Kollwitzplatz on the 8th July – her birthday.

2

Class Struggle in the driver’s cab

It was only in 1984 that the West-Berlin municipal transport services, BVG, took over the entire S-Bahn (commuter railway) railway network from the “Deutsche Reichsbahn” (DR; German Reichs Railway), the operating company of the GDR railway. The DR only handed over the oldest carriages, all displaying the characteristic red and yellow paintwork.
The relation of the two public transport services was defined by conflicts, quips and harassments throughout the Cold War. One of the low points in these quarrels took place in January 1953. The female S-Bahn driver Inge Müller was removed from the driver’s cabin at Potsdamer Platz and send off to an undesired free evening by an BVG officer and the police because women were not allowed to drive trams in the western sector of Berlin. “Das Vorzeigen meiner Fahrberechtigung und mein Hinweis, dass ich nicht daran denke, den Verkehrsplan zu schmeißen, blieben unbeachtet” (Showing my driver’s license and my hint that I had no intention to topple the time table remained unnoticed) the indignant driver later told the newspaper “Neues Deutschland” (New Germany). While East Berlin trained women to operate the crank handles of a tram since 1950, such equal opportunities were still far away at the Western BVG. Although the eastern side had agreed to follow the western regulations within the zonal border, they repeatedly sent female drivers to operate the lines that connected Mitte and Tiergarten, Treptow and Neukölln, or Prenzlauer Berg and Wedding and crossed this border; thus they tried to hint at the backwardness of the class enemy.

1

At a right angle to the north

Looking down on the Prenzlauer Berg one notices the accuracy of the rectangular street plan. It dates back to 1862 and was layed out in the development plan devised by government master builder James Hobrecht. The population of Berlin had increased considerably during the 19th century and housing development had to be extended beyond the city gates. Hobrecht’s planning was geared to the three major existing radial roads towards the north, modern Schönhauser Allee, Prenzlauer Allee, and Greifswalder Strasse; between these, he established a grid.
As the streets of houses grew streets and places were named. After the Franco-German war 1870/71 the French Quarter between Schönhauser and Prenzlauer Allee was created. Streets were named after French towns like Straßbourg, Metz, Wörth, Mulhouse, Colmar, as well as Prussian generals who participated in the battles
– among them Fransecky and Tresckow whose streets were later renamed Sredzkistrasse and Knaackstrasse respectively.
North of the Danziger Strasse important persons were honoured: the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, the physiologist Hermann Helmholtz, the long-term mayor Hermann Duncker and the inventor of the lithography, Aloys Senefelder. Still later the Nordic quarter and the East Prussian quarter were built. Hobrecht work was also honoured; a street in Kreuzberg bears the name Hobrechtstrasse.
The historic street signs around the Kollwitzplatz were restored in the style of 1900 on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of Berlin.