Nollendorfplatz B-Schoeneberg 06-2017 img2

Nollendorfplatz (colloquially called ''Nolle'' or ''Nolli'') is a square in the central

Schöneberg Schöneberg () is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Tempe ...

district of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, Germany.

History

The place was named on 27 November 1864 after the village of ''Nollendorf'' ( cs, Nakléřov) near Petrovice in the present-day Czech Republic, a site of the 1813

Battle of Kulm :''See Battle of Chlumec for the 1126 battle at Kulm The Battle of Kulm was fought near the town Kulm () and the village Přestanov in northern Bohemia. It was fought on 29–30 August 1813, during the War of the Sixth Coalition. A French ...

where the united forces of the

Sixth Coalition Sixth is the ordinal form of the number six. * The Sixth Amendment, to the U.S. Constitution * A keg of beer, equal to 5 U.S. gallons or barrel * The fraction Music * Sixth interval (music)s: ** major sixth, a musical interval ** minor six ...

defeated a French army under

Dominique Vandamme General Dominique-Joseph René Vandamme, Count of Unseburg (5 November 1770, Cassel, Nord15 July 1830) was a French military officer, who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. He was a dedicated career soldier with a reputation as an excellent divisio ...

. The victorious

Prussian 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 e ...

troops were led by General Friedrich von Kleist, who in turn was elevated to a "Count of Nollendorf" by King

Frederick William III Frederick William III (german: Friedrich Wilhelm III.; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, wh ...

. The adjacent Kleiststraße leads from Nollendorfplatz to Wittenbergplatz in the west. The extended square was laid out according to the

Hobrecht-Plan The Hobrecht-Plan is the binding land-use plan for Berlin in the 19th century. It is named after its main editor, James Hobrecht (1825–1902), who served for the royal Prussian urban planning police ("Baupolizei"). The finalized plan "Bebauun ...

of 1862, then part of a larger road link from Charlottenburg through Schöneberg to the Berlin district of

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 ...

in the manner of a

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

ian boulevard, named after victorious Prussian generals (therefore colloquially called ''Generalszug'' in German). During the Wilhelmine era, in 1902, the first

Berlin U-Bahn The Berlin U-Bahn (; short for , "underground railway") is a rapid transit system in Berlin, the capital and largest city of Germany, and a major part of the city's public transport system. Together with the S-Bahn, a network of suburban train li ...

line ('' Stammstrecke'') was inaugurated, which ran under Kleiststraße up to the

elevated railway An elevated railway or elevated train (also known as an el train for short) is a rapid transit railway with the tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure (usually constructed from steel, cast iron, concrete, or bricks ...

at Nollendorfplatz station, built according to plans designed by Cremer & Wolffenstein architects.

Gay village

During the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...

, the well-known gay nightclub Eldorado was located on

Motzstraße Motzstraße is a street in the Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg. It runs from Nollendorfplatz via Viktoria-Luise-Platz in Schöneberg to Prager Platz in Wilmersdorf. The section of Motzstraße between Nollendorfplatz and Martin-Luther-S ...

. During 1932, the club was seized by the Nazis and used as the Sturmabteilung (SA) headquarters. This area was severely damaged by the

bombing of Berlin in World War II A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanic ...

, the square today is shaped by the rebuilt U-Bahn viaduct and the facade of the historic Neues Schauspielhaus theatre, supplemented by numerous new buildings. The adjacent area in the south around

is Berlin's most prominent

gay village A gay village is a geographical area with generally recognized boundaries that is inhabited or frequented by many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBT) people. Gay villages often contain a number of gay-oriented establis ...

and site of the annual

Lesbian and Gay City Festival The Lesbian and Gay City Festival (''Lesbisch-Schwules Stadtfest'') in Berlin is Europe's largest street festival for lesbians and gays. It has been held in the traditional gay area around Nollendorfplatz in Schöneberg since 1993. In Berlin ...

. Nollendorfplatz has a long history as being a gay area which dates back to the turn of the 20th century, perpetuated by ''

The Berlin Stories ''The Berlin Stories'' is a 1945 anthology by Anglo-American writer Christopher Isherwood consisting of two novels: ''Mr Norris Changes Trains'' (1935) and ''Goodbye to Berlin'' (1939). The two novels are set in Jazz Age Berlin between 1930 and ...

'' of Christopher Isherwood, the writings of

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

, Klaus Mann, and many others. Within the gay community this part of Berlin is most famous for its leather and darkroom bars. It also plays a little role in the musical ''

Cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

'' by Joe Masteroff as the home of some of the characters. A memorial plaque at the U-Bahn station commemorates the

persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust Before 1933, homosexual acts were illegal in Germany under Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code. The law was not consistently enforced, however, and a thriving gay culture existed in German cities. After the Nazi takeover in 1933, the ...

Notable people

* Georg Büchmann (1822–1884), philologist, lived on the corner of Bülowstraße * Samuel von Fischer (1859–1934), publisher, ran his S. Fischer Verlag on Bülowstraße from 1897 onwards *

Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as ...

(1861–1925), philosopher, lived on Motzstraße from 1903 * Lesser Ury (1861–1931), painter, lived on Nollendorfplatz No. 1 from 1920 *

Frank Wedekind Benjamin Franklin Wedekind (July 24, 1864 – March 9, 1918) was a German playwright. His work, which often criticizes bourgeois attitudes (particularly towards sex), is considered to anticipate expressionism and was influential in the de ...

(1864–1918), playwright, lived on nearby Kurfürstenstraße *

Else Lasker-Schüler Else Lasker-Schüler (née Elisabeth Schüler) (; 11 February 1869 – 22 January 1945) was a German-Jewish poet and playwright famous for her bohemian lifestyle in Berlin and her poetry. She was one of the few women affiliated with the Expressi ...

(1869–1945), poet, lived on Motzstraße between 1924 and 1933 *

Max Beckmann Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann (February 12, 1884 – December 27, 1950) was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement. In the 1920s ...

(1884–1950), painter, lived on Nollendorfplatz No. 6 *

Wilhelm Furtwängler Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler ( , , ; 25 January 188630 November 1954) was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. He was a major ...

(1886–1954), conductor, was born in the former house on the corner of Maaßenstraße * Nelly Sachs (1891–1970), poet, was born on Maaßenstraße *

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish ...

(1892–1940), philosopher, spent his childhood on Kurfürstenstraße * Walter Mehring (1896–1981), author, was born on nearby Derfflingerstraße *

Ödön von Horváth Edmund Josef von Horváth (9 December 1901, Sušak, Rijeka, Austria-Hungary – 1 June 1938, Paris France) was an Austro-Hungarian playwright and novelist who wrote in German, and went by the name of ''nom de guerre'' Ödön von Horváth. He was ...

(1901–1938 Paris), writer, lived on Motzstraße in the late 1920s * Christopher Isherwood (1904–1986), novelist, lived on Nollendorfstraße between 1929 and 1933 * Jean Ross (1911–1973), cabaret singer and writer, lived on Nollendorfstraße between 1930 and 1932 File:U-Bahn Berlin Nollendorfplatz2.JPG, Metrotrain at Nollendorfplatz File:U Nollendorfplatz Berlin, Kuppel.jpg, Metrostation Nollendorfplatz File:Nollendorfplatz Berlin Fragment 1.jpg, Pieces of ''Amerikanische Kirche'' (American Church) File:Salomè, Stele, Berlin Nollendorfplatz.jpg, Rainbow Gay Column File:Gay Bear Berlin Nollendorfplatz.jpg, Gay Bear at Nollendorfplatz File:Nollendorfplatz Berlin 1907, Missmann.jpg, Nollendorfplatz 1907 File:Nollendorfplatz, Berlin 1900.png, Nollendorfplatz, around 1900 File:Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Nollendorfplatz.jpg, Nollendorfplatz by

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (6 May 1880 – 15 June 1938) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th-century ...

1912 File:Nollendorfplatz B-Schoeneberg 06-2017 img1.jpg, Neues Schauspielhaus File:Nollendorfplatz U-Bahnhof&Neues Schauspielhaus.jpg, Nollendorfplatz station and Neues Schauspielhaus

References

Literature

* Susanne Twardawa: ''Der Nollendorfplatz in Berlin''. Motzbuch, Berlin 2001,

External links

{{coord, 52, 29, 57, N, 13, 21, 14, E, region:DE-BE_type:landmark_source:dewiki, display=title Gay villages in Germany Squares in Berlin