Hermannplatz

Hermannplatz is neither the nucleus nor the center of a settlement area, unlike many other urban squares. Instead, it is a segment of a road that became square-shaped between two road bends (later intersections). Thus, Hermannplatz was originally merely part of the route from Berlin to Mittenwalde via Rixdorf. The crossing path has led along the southern edge of the marshy Spree Valley at the foot of the Teltow Plateau since primeval times.[1]

Rollkrug (around 1900) at the corner of Hermann-/Berliner Straße (since 1947: Karl-Marx-Straße), view of Hermannplatz

In August 1543, when Richardsdorf (later: Rixdorf) came under the ownership of the city Cölln, an inn already existed on the south side of the future Hermannplatz.[3] Around 1737, the Rollkrug Inn was built at the same location and derived its name from the rolling mountains that began in the south, an Ice Age ridge. In the middle of the 18th century, the square was also referred to as Platz am Rollkrug. For a long time, the Rollkrug Inn was the only building on the plaza, and it almost seemed like a foreign body until the Gründerzeit, when a metropolitan atmosphere emerged within a few decades.[4]

Towards the end of the 19th century, Rixdorf, a suburb of Berlin, had gained a reputation as an entertainment district, with its restaurants also having a questionable image. In 1885, the square at the Rollkrug was renamed Hermannplatz, and in 1907, the Rollkrug was demolished to make way for a commercial building. The commercial structure was also known as "Neuer Rollkrug," (New Rollkrug) and it still bears the inscription "Rollkrug" above the entrance on Hermannstraße. Since 1988, the building has been listed as a historical monument.[5][6]

Inscription on the building on the site of the former inn

The 1846 situation plan shows an additional inn called Zur guten Hoffnung next to the Rollkrug at Hermannplatz. It is located at the corner of Hermannplatz and Sonnenallee.[3] Although the building is no longer an inn, it is still depicted in the 1862 development plan for the surroundings of Berlin. On the opposite side of the street (at the corner of Hermannplatz and Urbanstraße), there is a restaurant called Gasthof zum Spreewald. Additionally, there is a pharmacy located at the corner of Hermannplatz and Hasenheide.

Before 1874, all imports into Berlin were subject to customs duty and had to be paid at the Accisehaus across from the Rollkrug. Although the building was still standing at the beginning of the 20th century, it had to be removed to make way for the widening of Hermannstraße and the construction of the new subway at Hermannplatz.[4]

The front building of Hermannstraße 4 was demolished to make room for a transformer station, which provided a temporary fix to the subway's power supply. In 1927/1928, the Hermannstraße transformer plant was constructed at Hermannstraße 5-8 according to Alfred Grenander's plans. It was designed to fit the new street layout and has been recognized as an architectural monument since the late 20th century. The plant converted the AC voltage received from the Kottbusser Ufer substation at 6000 volts and 50 hertz into DC voltage at 780 volts. The new street arrangement at the corner building to Hasenheide and the adjacent property Hermannstraße 4 is still evident from Hermannstraße since one can easily view the building's garden or the corner building's firewall.[5][3]

Tenement buildings were built on both sides of the square around 1860. However, in the mid-1920s, the residential buildings on the west side of the square were demolished again to make way for the construction of the subway and a retail store. During the reconstruction of the west side of the square, it was also broadened by 20 meters, giving it its present dimensions.

On April 16, 1945, the Red Army launched its attack across the Oder River. The 1st Belorussian Front of Soviet Marshal Zhukov aimed at the eastern parts of the city from Küstrin. The date is considered the beginning of the Battle of Berlin.

On April 21, 1945, Hermannplatz was among the first sites in Berlin to be attacked by the Soviets. The 1st Guards Tank Army, whose soldiers marched into Neukölln from the southeast, was the source of the artillery whose shells unexpectedly reached the square.[1]

A historian describes the situation:

"The sound was unlike anything Berliners had heard before - unlike the whistling of bombs whizzing down or the barking of flak. The people standing in front of the Karstadt department store on Hermannplatz raised their heads in amazement and listened. It was a low howl, somewhere in the distance, but then it turned into a hideous, shrill screech. For a moment, the people seemed hypnotized. Then they scattered. But it was too late. Artillery shells struck everywhere in the square, the first to reach the city. Mangled bodies banged against boarded-up storefronts. Men and women lay screaming in the street, writhing in pain. It was Saturday, April 21, at 11:30 a.m. sharp, and Berlin was a frontline city."

— Cornelius Ryan, Der letzte Kampf, pp. 261

The cannonade impacted the entire downtown area, with Soviet troops advancing slowly in the forefront near Köpenick, Karlshorst, and Buckow. The artillery fire disrupted defense deployment and forced people to move toward the city center.

On the morning of April 25, units of the 4th Guards Corps, supported by the 11th Guards Tank Corps, infiltrated Neukölln. The Soviet tanks march could be followed within the visibility. The defense at Hermannplatz was organized by SS Brigadeführer Gustav Krukenberg.[7]

As the city's law and order deteriorated, a witness heard that the large department store Karstadt was being robbed. She immediately ran there, and people were taking whatever they could get. In the afternoon, the massive department store was blown up. The SS blew it up to prevent the 29 million marks worth of supplies they had stored in the cellars from falling into the hands of the Russians. There were several fatalities reported.[9]

Ruin of the department store Karstadt in May 1945

On the evening of April 25, the doctor of a nearby military hospital for French prisoners of war witnessed the scene: "To the right, a cloud of smoke hid the two 80-meter-high towers of the Karstadt department store that towered over the neighborhood."[10]

Hermannplatz's defenses were effective until the following morning.[11] The Observer reported on April 26 that "the towers of the Karstadt department store were gone, and the big building was on fire."

Krukenberg "thought his men too bad to be 'burned out' on a comparatively unimportant section, so he managed to get his force moved from Neukölln to the city center."[12]

A small part of the department store on Hasenheide was saved and sales resumed by the end of July 1945. In 1950, reconstruction began. The architect Alfred Busse designed a four-story building that adjoined the preserved part of the building and was completed on the corner of Hasenheide and Hermannplatz by 1951.

Rest of the original façade, 2011

Over the decades since its development, the edifice underwent several expansions. The most recent addition took place in 2000, along with a significant makeover of the exterior design. Helmut Kriegbaum, Jürgen Sawade, and Udo Landgraf were the architects hired for the extensions.

Signa Holding, the owner of the Karstadt department store in Hermannplatz, revealed plans in January 2019 to erect an interpretive restoration of the façade damaged during WWII, including the distinctive towers. The renovation would also create additional space for offices, housing, restaurants, and retail.

Hermannplatz with a railcar 24 of the Südliche Berliner Vorortbahn, around 1907

In 1875, the Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (GBPfE) opened the Hallesches Tor-Rixdorf line which ran along Hasenhaide and Berliner Straße and passed tangent to Hermannplatz to the south.[20] In 1884 the Spittelmarkt - Rollkrug railway ran directly across Hermannplatz.[21] The line was then extended from Hermanstraße to Knesebeckstraße in 1885, at the cost of the Rixdorf municipality, which GBPfE acquired from the municipality in 1887. The Südliche Berliner Vorortbahn (Southern Berlin Suburban Railway) launched the first electric streetcar line into service via Hermannplatz on July 1, 1899.[22] The ring line went through Rixdorf, Britz, Tempelhof, Schöneberg, and Kreuzberg and was commonly referred to as the "Wüstenbahn" (desert line) because the southern section of the ring line passed through uninhabited territory.[23]

Entrance to Hermannplatz subway station

In 1905, there were plans to construct a suspension railroad that would run from Gesundbrunnen station via Hermannplatz to Rixdorf (Südring) station, which later became Neukölln (Südring) station. Unfortunately, the plan was never implemented.[22]

During the 1920s, Hermannplatz became a major bus route hub connecting various parts of the city. Multiple bus lines covered long distances, making it easier for people to travel across the city. One such example is the line A29, which began operating on December 12, 1921, with a length of 14.4 kilometers. It connected Pankow, Breite Straße to Hermannplatz.[21]

Before 1930, tram tracks existed on all the streets leading to Hermannplatz, and 15 different tram lines would stop there, including those running through the subway tunnels.[24] However, starting from the 1950s, the use of buses gradually increased in West Berlin, leading to the discontinuation of the final tram line (Line 27) passing through Hermannplatz on October 1, 1964. Line 95 continued to run tangent to Hermannplatz on the Urbanstraße-Sonnenallee axis as of May 2, 1965, but service was eventually terminated after the closure of the Britz depot in 1966. Since German unification, there have been attempts to extend the tram from the eastern part of Berlin (e.g. Warschauer Straße) to Hermannplatz.[25]

Hermannplatz subway station, line U7 stops at the lower platform

In the 1920s, Hermannplatz underwent significant transportation changes with the underground system's introduction on April 11, 1926. The Northern Southern Railway's first section, Hasenheide - Bergstraße (later renamed Südstern - Karl-Marx-Straße), was opened, connecting Seestraße in Wedding to Bergstraße in Neukölln. On July 17, 1927, Hermannplatz's second platform became operational, coinciding with the launch of the GN-Bahn (Gesundbrunnen-Neukölln) for the relatively short section from Boddin- to Schönleinstraße, which was later designated as the U8 line. The Hermannplatz subway station was designed as a tower station, featuring a vast hall nine meters below ground, with the platform for the later U7 line in the Hasenheide- Karl-Marx-Strasse street line, while the U8 platform in the Hermannplatz - Hermannstraße street line acted as a crossbar above. The ceilings of both platforms are at the same height, located directly under the street. The escalators between the two platforms were the first of their kind in the entire Berlin subway system, and the station's architects were Alfred Grenander and Alfred Fehse.