Imperial Berlin

A historical blog that investigates and celebrates the history of Imperial Berlin, a city on the rise.

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Cologne Cathedral Cathedral to Wars of Liberation Schauspielhaus Bauakademie

Sourced from Barry Bergdoll, European Architecture 1750-1890 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).

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Berlin became a city of extremes: the rich built themselves palaces in the west while the poor lived in proletarian barracks, Mietskasernen, as they were called, in the east. The gaudiness of the rich was in stark contrast to the crampedness of the poor; there was neither harmony of style nor harmony of classes in the new Berlin.

Fritz Richard Stern, Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichröder, and the Building of the German Empire (New York: Knopf, 1977), pg. 162.

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The Kaiser commissioned dozens of nationalistic memorials, the most exaggerated and pompous being the Siegesallee or ‘Victory Avenue’. The seven hundred meter long street marched through the heart of Berlin and was bordered by thirty-two marble statues of German heroes. The statues were huge and awkwardly designed, although Wilhelm proclaimed them to be “of a quality rarely seen even during the Renaissance.” Although other European empires often tittered at the arrogant, tacky and overtly designed Berlin memorials, Wilhelm insisted that Berlin was now the “most beautiful” of all European cities.

Kaiser Wilhelm II, “Die wahre Kunst: Anspraeche an die bei der Ausgestaltung der Siegesallee beteiligten Kuenstler, gehalten beim Frestmahl im Koeniglichen Scholss aus Anlass der Enthuellung der letzten denkmalsgrumme am 18. Dezember 1901” Found in Richie, pg. 231. 

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Kaisercult

Berliners were swept up in the Kaisercult or ‘Cult of the Kaiser’ and Wilhelm was honored with dozens of tangible celebrations, like statues and busts, and also with colloquial attitudes, such as referring to a sunny day as ‘Kaiser weather.’[1]

[1] Alexandra Richie, Faust’s Metropolis: A History of Berlin (New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, Inc., 1998),  pg. 230. 

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Berlin Sewage System

One British health inspector Edwin Chadwick referred to Berlin as the "most foul-smelling, dirtiest and most pestilent" capital in the civilized world in 1872, declaring that its citizens could be "recognized by the smell of their clothes."[1] However, the Berliners were not to be outdone by other European capitals. In the late nineteenth century, city administrators constructed an underground sewage system, which was built like a wheel spoke and used a series of pressure pipes and pumping stations to deposit waste far outside city limits. The speed of progress was impressive. Despite Chadwick’s declaration in 1872, Berlin was later declared the cleanest metropolitan area in Europe by 1900.

[1] Eva-Maria Schnurr, “The Late 19th Century Saw The Birth of Modern Berlin,” Spiegel Online, November 22, 2012, http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-late-19th-century-saw-the-birth-of-modern-berlin-a-866321.html.

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Elektropolis

Between 1880 and 1913, Berlin was affectionately referred to as Elektropolis, as engineers made millions developing the revolutionary science, acting as “an enormous motor which…drove the German economy forwards.”[1]

[1] Werner von Siemens, Found in Peter Geoffrey Hall, Cities in Civilization (New York: Fromm International, 2001), pg. 382.

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The Imperial Castle (destroyed) Found in Gerhard Masur, Imperial Berlin

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Famous People from Fin de Siecle Berlin: Kathe Kollwitz

Painter, sculptor and print-maker, Kollwitz was a pioneering woman in a man's world. (1867- 1945)

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Teenage Angst: Berlin's Turn of the Century Growing Pains - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Prior to 1870, visitors to Berlin found themselves confronted with little more than a swampy backwater. As the turn of the century approached, however, the city underwent vast and rapid change, becoming one of Europe's most modern metropolises by 1914. But along with industry and infrastructure, the changes also brought poverty and pestilence.

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This is a colored collection of film footage from fin de siecle Berlin (and a few spliced scenes from Munich). I was unable to fully verify the authenticity of this footage, but I do recognize some of the landmarks. I have included it because it is a fun look at the evolving city.

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The original Reichstag (Parliament) building was completed in 1894, with the final stone laid by Kaiser Wilhelm II. It was designed to be a symbol of German power and national identity. While the renovated Reichstag (as seen in this video) has significantly more modern components, the bones of the original Reichstag were honored.

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Berlin was the heart of this new Empire. It too suddenly became aware of its new importance; it became a visible metropolis…By 1871, it became clear that Berlin embodied the elements of the new society: people came to realize that Berlin had been and continued to be a dynamically expanding city, a growing center of banking, trade, and industry.

Fritz Richard Stern, Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichröder, and the Building of the German Empire (New York: Knopf, 1977).

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Germans were not shy about building up their capital city and a standard set of imperial and national symbols began to pop up all over Berlin, such as eagles, oak leaves, laurel wreaths, winged Victory, and the martial Germania figure adorned statues, buildings and monuments. Patriotic paintings in schools, railway stations, town halls and other government buildings were commissioned all across the city. 

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What a peace for us Germans! More magnificent and more glorious than any we have ever concluded! United in one Reich, the greatest, the mightiest, the most feared empire in Europe, great not alone through its physical power, greater still through its culture and through the spirit which permeates its people. (1871)

Baroness Therese Spitzemberg, found in Fritz Richard Stern, Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichröder, and the Building of the German Empire (New York: Knopf, 1977), pg. 160.

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Throne Room in the Royal Palace of Berlin destroyed in 1950. The Hohenzollern family used to live in this palace until the end of the German Empire, after the 1st Worldwide War.

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Imperial Berlin!

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Viktoria Elisabeth Auguste Charlotte, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, daughter of the Prussian rulers and younger sister to Kaiser Wilhelm II

Princess Charlotte was a free thinking, wickedly sharp, and wild royal. She was once embroiled in a sex scandal, causing the Kaiser to banish her from Berlin society. The two never reconciled.