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Location of Friedrichshain in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough of Berlin

Friedrichshain is a part of Berlin's borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. From its creation in 1920 until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a freestanding city borough. Formerly part of East Berlin, it is an inner city locality, adjacent to Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg and Lichtenberg. Friedrichshain is named after the Volkspark Friedrichshain, a vast green park located at the north border to Prenzlauer Berg. During the Nazi era, it bore the name Horst-Wessel-Stadt.

[edit] History

Karl-Marx-Allee, the broad boulevard that bisects Friedrichshain, seen from TV tower

The largely working-class district was created in 1920 when Greater Berlin was created in a referendum, incorporating several surrounding cities. Friedrichshain united the Frankfurter Vorstadt, already part of Berlin, and the villages of Boxhagen and Stralau. It took its name (meaning "Frederick's Grove") from the Volkspark (People's Park), which was planned in 1840 to commemorate the centenary of Frederick the Great’s coronation. Much of the district was settled in the rapid industrialization of the 19th and early 20th centuries, led by growth in manufacturing and crafts. It owed much to the opening of the railway line between Berlin and Frankfurt (Oder) in 1846 (which terminated near the site of today's Berlin Ostbahnhof), and the opening of the first waterworks in 1865 at Stralauer Tor. In the early 1900s, the district's largest employer was the Knorr-Bremse brake factory; the Knorrpromenade, one of Friedrichshain's most attractive streets, was built to house the management.

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the district was renamed Horst-Wessel-Stadt after the street fighter and writer of the Nazi hymn whose slow death, after being shot by communists, in Friedrichshain hospital in 1930 was turned into a propaganda event by Joseph Goebbels.

During World War II Friedrichshain was one of the most badly damaged parts of Berlin, as the allies specifically targeted its industries. After the war ended, the boundary between the American and Soviet occupation sectors ran between Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg. This turned into a sealed border between East and West Berlin when the Berlin Wall was built in 1961.

The Stalinallee (now Karl-Marx-Allee and Frankfurter Allee) was built in Friedrichshain in the late 1940s and early 1950s as a prestige project; its architecture is strongly reminiscent of that of Soviet-era Moscow boulevards. It was also the scene of the 1953 uprising, when a raised work quota led to protests throughout East Germany that were only put down with Soviet intervention.

[edit] Lifestyle

Simon-Dach-Straße is the "heart" of Friedrichshain and one of the liveliest places in Berlin

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and German reunification the following October, Friedrichshain began to develop a reputation as a young, dynamic district, thanks in part to low rents and the many empty apartments that also attracted the attention of West Berlin squatters.

Alongside the neighboring districts of Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, and Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain is now considered one of Berlin's most fashionable areas, and is home to numerous design and media companies including MTV Central Europe. It is known for its many bars, clubs, pubs, and cafes, concentrated in the vicinity of Simon-Dach-Straße and Boxhagener Platz. There were numerous squats in Friedrichshain, particularly in Rigaer Straße. In contrast to the more gentrified and expensive districts of Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte, Friedrichshain has a slightly run-down atmosphere, and its lower rents following German reunification attracted students and artists. Nowadays numerous restoration works are under way and Friedrichshain is developing on a fast pace becoming more and more gentrified itself.

[edit] Points of interest

East Side Gallery, a part of the Berlin Wall that was turned into an international outdoor gallery
Karl-Marx-Allee, a boulevard lined with buildings in the Stalinist style, originally called Stalinallee
Frankfurter Tor, two landmark towers on Karl-Marx-Allee, which resemble the church domes on Gendarmenmarkt
Oberbaumbrücke, a road and rail bridge connecting Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain built in North German brick
Fairytale Fountain in Volkspark Friedrichshain
Simon-Dach-Straße, street with numerous pubs
Boxhagener Platz, heart of the Friedrichshain Kiez or neighborhood
Straße der Pariser Kommune, a street beginning a block north of the Karl-Marx-Allee and extending to the banks of the Spree
Samariterviertel with the Samariterkirche (Church of the Good Samaritan)
Berlin Ostbahnhof
Volkspark Friedrichshain, with its Memorial to Polish Soldiers and German Anti-Fascists
Skatehall Berlin, Revaler Strasse 99

[edit] Gallery

Simon-Dach-Straße is a popular destination, with numerous bars.	Jugendstil house in the Simon-Dach-Straße.	The Knorrpromenade.	The small cinema "Intimes," over 70 years old, on the corner of Boxhagener Straße.
A popular flea market takes place every Sunday on Boxhagener Platz.	Frankfurter Allee, looking west, with the TV tower at Alexanderplatz in the background.	The north tower at Frankfurter Tor.	A closer look at a Frankfurt Allee façade, showing the neo-classicist tilework.
The Haus an der Weberwiese, the first high-rise apartment block in Berlin, built 1951.	The "Molecule man", a big art work at the Berlin river Spree.	The Osthafen (east harbour) at the Spree between Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg. In the background the Oberbaumbrücke and the Fernsehturm.	The Oberbaumbrücke and the waters of the Spree belong to Friedrichshain.
The East Side Gallery is the longest remaining part of the Berlin Wall.	A squat on Kreuziger Straße, one of many such buildings in the district.