Kopenhagener Straße
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Kopenhagener Straße, or Kopenhagener Strasse (see ß), is a street in
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
's
Prenzlauer Berg Prenzlauer Berg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin, forming the southerly and most urban district of the borough of Pankow. From its founding in 1920 until 2001, Prenzlauer Berg was a district of Berlin in its own right ...
district, which runs parallel to the
Ringbahn The Ringbahn (German for circle railway) is a long circle route around Berlin's inner city area, on the Berlin S-Bahn network. Its course is made up of a pair of tracks used by S-Bahn trains and another parallel pair of tracks used by various ...
tracks between busy Schönhauser Allee in the east all the way to the
Mauerpark Mauerpark is a public linear park in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg district. The name translates to "Wall Park", referring to its status as a former part of the Berlin Wall and its Death Strip. The park is located at the border of Prenzlauer B ...
in the west, where the
Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...
separated the
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
from the French sector. The street was named on 30 April 1899 after the Danish capital
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
. At a length of 800 metres (one-half mile) it features a nearly complete row of 61 apartment buildings built in the
Jugendstil (; "Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany, Austria and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German and Austrian cou ...
period with four modern houses and playgrounds in between. From east to west it is intersected by Rhinower Straße, then crossed by Sonnenburger Straße, by Ystader Straße and finally ends at Schwedter Straße at the northern end of the Mauerpark. At Sonnenburger Straße the Schönfließer Brücke, built in 1908 according to plans by
Alfred Grenander Alfred Frederik Elias Grenander (26 June 1863 – 14 March 1931) was a Swedish architect, who became one of the most prominent engineers during the first building period of the Berlin U-Bahn network in the early twentieth century. Biography Gr ...
, crossed the Ringbahn railway towards the north up until the end of World War II. The bridge was damaged by a bomb in the Allied attack on 3 February 1945, and removed completely at the end of the 1950s. The house at Kopenhagener Straße 17 was destroyed in the process, and parts of it blocked the bridge. As a replacement, a 60 m (200 ft) long pedestrian bridge was installed right beside during the governance of the
German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
(GDR) in the early 1960s. Between 1945 and at least 1954 a provisional instalment bridged the railway tracks towards the undestroyed (major) part of the Schönfließer Brücke. A study prepared by the geography department at the
Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...
counted 45 artists in the street, making this one of Berlin's significant creative functional clusters. Further one finds very many cafés, restaurants, bars and the infamous Mittwochsclub (Wednesday Club, located in the cellar under the Kohlenquelle Café in No. 16). The most obvious structure in the street is the former Humboldt transformer station at No. 61 (on the corner of Sonnenburger Straße), that was planned by the renowned German industrial architect Hans Heinrich Müller. An experimental urban children's farm (the Moritzhof) is located at the western end of the Kopenhagener Straße, providing the surreal view of horses and goats against a backdrop of dense urban housing and the Fernsehturm. The Kopenhagener Straße was inhabited by artists and bohemians much before
German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...
. Despite the renovation and revival of the majority of the buildings since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the
cobblestone Cobblestone is a natural building material based on Cobble (geology), cobble-sized stones, and is used for Road surface, pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Sett (paving), Setts, also called ''Belgian blocks'', are often referred to as " ...
street at the northern rim of Berlin's city centre has maintained its pre-unification calm and creative charm. For this reason the Kopenhagener Straße was selected as the movie set for several movies that indulge in GDR ''
Ostalgie In German culture, ''Ostalgie'' () is nostalgia for aspects of life in Communist East Germany. It is a portmanteau of the German words '' Ost'' (east) and '' Nostalgie'' (nostalgia). Its anglicised equivalent, ostalgia (rhyming with "nostalgi ...
'', for example ''Der Rote Kakadu'' and '' Sommer vorm Balkon''. Aside from artists, many actors, authors and architects also have made the street their home or place of work. Approximately half of the current residents lived in the street before reunification. Newer inhabitants are mostly from former
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
and other European countries.


References


Sources


''Die Kulturmeile - Raum für Kunst in der Kopenhagener Straße''
Tagesspiegel 20 November 2006


Further reading

* Katja Adelhof, HU-Berlin, 2006 Untersuchung zu "Räumlichen Clustern" u.a. in der Kopenhagener Straße


External links




Kinderbauernhof im Mauerpark

Roter Kakadu Official Movie Page

Sommer Vorm Balkon Official Movie Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kopenhagener Strasse Cobbled streets Pankow Restaurant districts and streets in Germany Streets in Berlin Art Nouveau architecture in Berlin Ostalgie