Voßstraße
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(also sometimes spelled ''Voss Strasse'' or ''Vossstrasse'' in English); is a street in central
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 ...
, the capital of Germany. It runs east–west from
Ebertstraße Ebertstraße is a street in Berlin, the capital of Germany. It runs on a roughly north-south line from the Brandenburg Gate to Potsdamer Platz in the centre of the city. As one heads south down Ebertstraße, the Tiergarten, a large forested par ...
to
Wilhelmstraße Wilhelmstrasse (german: Wilhelmstraße, see ß) is a major thoroughfare in the central Mitte (locality), Mitte and Kreuzberg districts of Berlin, Germany. Until 1945, it was recognised as the centre of the government, first of the Kingdom of Pru ...
in the borough of
Mitte Mitte () is the first and most central borough of Berlin. The borough consists of six sub-entities: Mitte proper, Gesundbrunnen, Hansaviertel, Moabit, Tiergarten and Wedding. It is one of the two boroughs (the other being Friedrichshain-Kreuzb ...
, one street north of
Leipziger Straße Leipziger Straße is a major thoroughfare in the central Mitte district of Berlin, capital of Germany. It runs from Leipziger Platz, an octagonal square adjacent to Potsdamer Platz in the west, to Spittelmarkt in the east. Part of the Bundesstr ...
and very close to
Potsdamer Platz Potsdamer Platz (, ''Potsdam Square'') is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, Germany, lying about south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), and close to the southeast corne ...
. It is best known for being the location of
Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
's new
Reich Chancellery The Reich Chancellery (german: Reichskanzlei) was the traditional name of the office of the Chancellor of Germany (then called ''Reichskanzler'') in the period of the German Reich from 1878 to 1945. The Chancellery's seat, selected and prepared s ...
complex, and the
bunker A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. ...
where he spent his last days.


History

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the area was the site of several mansions owned by members of 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 ...
n aristocracy, some of which were taken over by government departments. One of these was the home of Ferdinand August Hans Friedrich von Voß-Buch (1788–1871), a Prussian military officer who was at one time commander of the "Garde-Grenadier-Regiment Kaiser Alexander von Russland" which was stationed in Berlin, and who retired with the rank of
General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...
in 1854 and became a
Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
in 1864. His home was the "Marschall Palais" in Wilhelmstraße (sometimes referred to as "Palais Voß" or the "Voßsche Palais"), built in 1736 by architect
Philipp Gerlach Johann Philipp Gerlach (24 July 1679 – 17 September 1748) was a Prussian court architect, who built churches and public buildings in and around Berlin. Career Gerlach was born in Spandau. In 1707, he succeeded Martin Grünberg as royal direct ...
(1679-1748) and demolished in 1872, the year after Voß-Buch's death, to allow the creation of the street which was to bear his name. (Another street under the same name in Berlin's district
Tempelhof-Schöneberg Tempelhof-Schöneberg () is the seventh borough of Berlin, formed in 2001 by merging the former boroughs of Tempelhof and Schöneberg. Situated in the south of the city it shares borders with the boroughs of Mitte and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg in ...
was named after
Johann Heinrich Voss Johann Heinrich Voss (german: Johann Heinrich Voß, ; 20 February 1751 – 29 March 1826) was a Germans, German classicist and poet, known mostly for his translation of Homer's ''Odyssey'' (1781) and ''Iliad'' (1793) into German language, German ...
). Among the notable buildings in the Voßstrasse in the mid-1930s were: On the north side, numbered from east to west: * Voßstraße 1 - the Borsig Palais, on the corner of Wilhelmstraße, built in 1875–1877 on part of the site of the former Marshall Palais, for the German businessman and manufacturer
Albert Borsig August Julius Albert Borsig (born 7 March 1829 in Berlin; died 10 April 1878 in Berlin) was a German entrepreneur. He was the son of August Borsig and founder of the Borsig company.Kurt Pierson: Borsig – a name goes around the world. Rembrand ...
(1829–1878), son of locomotive engineer August Borsig, although he never actually moved into it and died a year after its completion * 2 - the head office of
Mitropa Mitropa was a catering company best known for having managed sleeping car, sleeping and dining cars of different German railways for most of the 20th century. Founded in 1916, the name "Mitropa" is an abbreviation of ''Mitteleuropa'' (German lan ...
, a catering company which from 1916 until 2002 managed sleeping and dining cars throughout the German rail system * 3 - the Embassy of
Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
* 4-5 - the Justice Ministry of the
German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
,
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 al ...
and
Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
* 6 - the head office of the German Reich Railway Co * 10 - the Embassy of
Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...
* 11 - the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
's Berlin offices * 15 - the Bank of Delbrück Schickler & Co * 19 - the Embassy of
Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
. On the south side, numbered from west to east: * Voßstraße 20 - the former Reich Naval Office, which had relocated to the
Bendlerblock The Bendlerblock is a building complex in the Tiergarten district of Berlin, Germany, located on Stauffenbergstraße (formerly named ''Bendlerstraße''). Erected in 1914 as headquarters of several Imperial German Navy (''Kaiserliche Marine'') off ...
in 1914 * 22 - the Mosse Palais, home of the German Jewish publishing tycoon
Hans Lachmann-Mosse Hans (John Rudolf) Lachmann-Mosse, ''till 1911'' Hans Lachmann (August 9, 1885, Berlin - April 18, 1944, Oakland, California, US) was a German publisher, director during the Weimar years of the Rudolf Mosse media empire whose titles included the ' ...
(1885–1944) * 24-32 - the rear of the enormous Jewish-owned department store Wertheim * 33-35 - more offices of the German Reich Railway Co. By the 1930s the latter had been taken over by the new
Reich Ministry of Transport The Reich Ministry of Transport (german: Reichsverkehrsministerium or ''RVM'') was a cabinet-level agency of the German government from 1919 until 1945, operating during the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. Formed from the Prussian Ministry of Pub ...
, which in its final form occupied an extensive range of buildings with facades in three streets (Voßstrasse, Leipziger Straße and Wilhelmstraße). Other addresses in Voßstrasse were mostly residential properties. In 1938 the entire north side of the street, except for the Borsig Palais (Voßstraße 1), was demolished to make way for the new
Reich Chancellery The Reich Chancellery (german: Reichskanzlei) was the traditional name of the office of the Chancellor of Germany (then called ''Reichskanzler'') in the period of the German Reich from 1878 to 1945. The Chancellery's seat, selected and prepared s ...
building, built by
Albert Speer Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer (; ; 19 March 1905 – 1 September 1981) was a German architect who served as the Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during most of World War II. A close ally of Adolf Hitler, he ...
for
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
and opened in January 1939. Incorporating the Borsig Palais within its structure, the Chancellery extended back along the whole length of the Voßstrasse, a distance of 430 metres: its official address was Voßstraße 6. The building was severely damaged by Allied bombs in February 1945, and the ruins later demolished by the
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
occupying forces. Hitler killed himself in the ''
Führerbunker The ''Führerbunker'' () was an air raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was part of a subterranean bunker complex constructed in two phases in 1936 and 1944. It was the last of the Führer Headquarters ( ...
'', a little further north, on 30 April 1945. From 7 October 1949, Voßstrasse was located in
East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...
, which did little to develop the
Potsdamer Platz Potsdamer Platz (, ''Potsdam Square'') is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, Germany, lying about south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), and close to the southeast corne ...
area as it was in the sensitive border zone, along which the
Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...
would eventually divide the city. By 1956 there was only one surviving building in the entire length of Voßstrasse - part of the German Reich Railway Co. offices (Voßstrasse 33). When the Berlin Wall went up in August 1961, much of Voßstraße became stranded in no-man's-land. Today, there is still little of note along the street, although it continues to attract curious visitors looking for the site of the Reich Chancellery and the Führerbunker. In the aerial photograph on the right, taken in December 2003, Voßstrasse runs from top to bottom just to the right of centre. The Reich Chancellery ran the full length of the north (left) side, up to Wilhelmstraße, the street running from left to right at the top of the picture. Today there are several GDR-era apartment blocks, built between 1986 and 1990, and some fenced-off waste land behind the apartment blocks along Wilhelmstraße. On the south (right) side of Voßstrasse, the sole-surviving pre-war building, part of the German Reich Railway Co. offices (Voßstraße 33), can be seen, mostly surrounded by the empty sites of the Wertheim department store and the rest of the Transport Ministry. Note also the concrete "lid" over the
U-Bahn Rapid transit in Germany consists of four U-Bahn systems and fourteen S-Bahn systems. The U-Bahn commonly understood to stand for Untergrundbahn (''underground railway'') are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while ...
line.


Legacy

Some of the stones from the new Reich Chancellery on Voßstrasse were later used for the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin-Treptow.


References


Further reading

*''Lonely Planet: Berlin'', 2005
Lonely Planet Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books. History Early years Lonely Planet was founded by married couple Maureen and Tony Wheeler. In 1972, they embarked ...
guidebook. Has a section on "Ghosts of the Voßstrasse" * * * * *
3D-reconstructed buildings of Voßstraße with history


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vossstrasse Streets in Berlin