The Hallesches Tor was located in today's

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

district

Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in 1990 it ha ...

south of

Mehringplatz Mehringplatz is a round plaza (or circus)A circus is "circular open space at a street junction" at the southern tip of the Friedrichstadt (Berlin), Friedrichstadt Boroughs and neighborhoods of Berlin, neighborhood of Kreuzberg district, Berlin. ...

. Today, as a historic monument listed

underground station A metro station or subway station is a station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a "metro" or "subway". A station provides a means for passengers to purchase tickets, board trains, and evacuate the system in the ...

on the site of the former gate bears the name ''Hallesches Tor''. It is a major transfer point for the underground lines / (here as Hochbahn) and as well as the bus lines 248 (Berlin Ostbahnhof - Breitenbachplatz via Südkreuz) and M41 (Hauptbahnhof via Potsdamer Platz - Baumschulenstraße). The station is connected by the ''Hallesche-Tor-Brücke'' with the ''Blücherplatz'' to the south. The

Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek The Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek (AGB; en, America Memorial Library) is one of the largest public libraries in Berlin, Germany. It was co-financed by a donation from the United States. The building was designed by American and German architects, inc ...

and the nearby

Jewish Museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area. List of Jewish museums Notable Jewish museums include: *Albania ** Solomon Museum, Berat *Australia ** Jewish Mu ...

contribute to the heavy visitor traffic in the area around the ''Hallesches Tor''.

History

It is named after the historic and no longer existing ''Hallesche Tor'' of the

Berlin Customs Wall The Berlin Customs Wall (German: "Berliner Zoll- und Akzisemauer", literally ''Berlin customs and excise wall'' the German term had been originally "Akzisemauer" / excise wall but with the fading knowledge of the term "excise" most references inco ...

, which replaced the ''Berlin city wall'' in the 18th century. The gate was located in the south of Berlin between the Wassertor and the Potsdamer Tor and formed the exit gate to the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

Halle an der Saale Halle (Saale), or simply Halle (; from the 15th to the 17th century: ''Hall in Sachsen''; until the beginning of the 20th century: ''Halle an der Saale'' ; from 1965 to 1995: ''Halle/Saale'') is the largest city of the German state of Saxony-Anh ...

. Until the Jewish Edict of 1812, the gate was the only one in southern Berlin that

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

were allowed to pass, and they had to register. In the north they were only allowed to enter the city through the Rosenthaler Tor - from 1750 through the Prenzlauer Tor.Ralf Gänsrich: ''König Friedrich II. ließ 5 Windmühlen errichten''. In: ''Prenzlberger Ansichten'', 21. Jg., September 2013, S. 8 Since the beginning of the 18th century, several

cemeteries A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

have been built outside the former city in front of the ''Hallesches Tor''. The area was named ''Am Halleschen Thore'' around 1848. In the years 1876 to 1879,

Heinrich Strack Johann Heinrich Strack (6 July 1805, Bückeburg – 13 June 1880, Berlin) was a German architect of the '' Schinkelschule''. His notable works include the Berlin Victory Column. Life and work His father, , was a painter of portraits and vedut ...

erected arcaded residential and commercial buildings and the ''Belle-Alliance-Brücke'' as a representative entrance to the city centre of Berlin instead of the gate. The complex was decorated with four groups of figures depicting trade and traffic. After severe war damage and post-war demolition, the bridge was restored in the 1950s and 1980s and two groups of figures were reassembled.

References

External links

{{Coordinate , NS=52/29/52/N , EW=13/23/28/E , type=landmark , region=DE-BE Buildings and structures in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg