Oranienburger Strasse - City of Berlin / Germany

"Orangen Burg" or "Burg der Apfelsinen" ?

The History of the Namegiving of the Berlin Oranienburger Strasse

Literally translated, Oranienburger Strasse means Orange Castle Avenue, but neither visible Orange Trees nor a Palace painted in orange colour can be seen in that Central Berlin Road. So, to which originary term refers the name of this historically rather important road and what are his relationships to the Orange-Nassau Dynasty and the worldwide distribution of these site names ?

The Orange fruit tree is commonly a symbol of a tasteful, juicy fruit giving plant with an pleasantly bright colour that grows in world regions with predominating sunshine and frost free climates as for example the mediterranean Europe. Travelling towards south the first natural growing orange trees can be found in the Southern France region of Provence where - probably for that reason - they gave that name to the town of ORANGE in the french Department of Vaucluse.

Café ORANGE in the Central Berlin Oranienburg Avenue
situated between the New Synagogue and the Postal Transport Administration

The more or less systematic extension of the term Orange to northern european countries and regions started around the year 1530 following a marriage between Claudia of Chalon and Henry III of Nassau-Breda. Their common son Renatus acquired by heritage in 1530 the regency over the Counties of Orange (Vaucluse) and Nassau (Germany & Netherlands) and became by that way the first person that carried the noble title Prince of Orange that later in german language was transformed phonetically into "Prinz von Oranjen (Oranien)" (and Nassau). The nowadays noble house of the netherlands still maintains this title Nassau-Oranjen meanwhile the since 1866 extinct german Nassau County actually only conmemorates that fact.

In the year 1646 a daughter of this Netherland house of Orange & Nassau, Countess Louise Henriette of Orange & Nassau, the oldest daughter of Frederic Henry Prince of Orange and Amalie of Solms-Braunfels born in 1627 in The Hague (Netherlands), married the so called "Great Kurfürst" Frederic William Elector of Brandenburg & Duke of Prussia and became by that way the "Princess Elector of Brandenburg", a political and socially rather influent position. Due to her importance several luxurious and representative palace buildings have been constructed during her regency and named in her honour. Between these places figure most important the Palace of Orange Castle (ORANIENBURG) in the same named town, meanwhile for her sister Henriette Catharina of Oranien that equally married to that german region of Brandenburg the palace and township of Orange Tree (ORANIENBAUM) was founded and around the latter organized settlements of political and confessional refugees from the mediterranean regions (Huguenots, Jews, ...) started to grow. Not seldom those Palace constructions included representative parks with the so called ORANGERIEN (Orangery), greenhouses that allowed the winter survival of the name giving Orange trees so that also in northern european regions the popular access to these admired plants started to be possible.

Orange Castle Avenue: Sight axis towards Synagogue and Television Tower

The nowadays greater Berlin Oranienburger Strasse exists as road since about the 13. century. During the 17 century the area still was dominated by rural characteristics as agricultural greenland, estates and brickyards. But in 1703, when the nowadays still so named MONBIJOU Palace and Park was founded, the road still was named with the somewhat military name SPANDAUER HEERWEG (Army Road to Spandau). The exact year of the contemporary road namegiving as ORANIENBURGER STRASSE is 1824 and doubtlessly the actual road name refers to the Brandenburg town of Oranienburg and the Palace Oranienburg named and constructed in 1652.

The fact, that in Berlin 2 more roads in the town quarters Wittenau and Lichtenrade are named equally Oranienburger Strasse calls for attention. The existence of the similar named ORANIENSTRASSE (Orange Road) in Berlin-Kreuzberg that equally is an important urban architectonic reference towards the ORANGE-NASSAU dynasties history, is already described visually in another edition of this publication series. During the existence time of the so called "Berlin Customs Wall" (Akzise-Wall 1734-1870), existed also the so called Oranienburg Gate that was later deconstructed and removed to the Brandenburg settlement of Gross Behnitz.

Nevertheless and in spite of all these historic references and interrelationships of the terms of Orange, Orange Fruits, Orange Trees and Orange & Nassau Dynasties the popular german language - and not only this language - refers metaphorically to female erotism by delineating the beauty of womans breasts indirectly as "Oranges", avoiding so to say obvious things in a direct way. These more or less secret relationships between orange fruits and the Berlin Orange Castle Avenue can be found there maybe much more intensively than in other Berlin roads, but searching for that secret meaning and it´s appearance in the daily life expressions, architecture and behaviour of the people moving in that town area.

The maybe most beautiful Berlin Orangees at the facade of the Post Office Building in the Berlin Oranienburger Strasse

The Avenue´s Overview

Studying the Orange Avenues History leds to the interesting fact, that Berlin - long before the "re-construction" of the famous "Berlin Wall" (13.8.1961 - 9.11.1989) - once upon a time was already surrounded by a wall. This former wall, erected in 1737 and existing until the year 1860, was called "Berlin Customs and Excise Wall" (Akzise Mauer) and substituted in a wider margin the former military wall constructions of the initial old Berlin town center, known as "Berlin Fortress". Urban development and town growth led to growing construction activities in the inmediate surroundings of the old Berlin Fortress walls, so that those became obsolete. To control and monopolize commercial and immigration activities in the now wider town margin, the Customs Wall with it´s 19 Gates served during 123 years as non-military trade barrier.

The Oranienburger Strasse was then situated in the northwestern sector of that wider town area and connected the Hacke´sche Market Square in front of the old Spandau Bridge Fortress Gate with the Oranienbruger Gate in the nowadays unexisting Customs and Excise Wall.

The situation of the Oranienburger Strasse (yellow line) between Hacke´scher Markt and Oranienburger Tor
connecting the former old Berlin Fortress Wall´s Spandau Bridge Gate with the former Customs Wall (red line)
as new wider town margin. (Source: Wikipedia)

Basically the geographic situation of that road remained unchanged during all this passed time. Along the northwest - southeast orientation of the main road axis has been erected the Monbijou Palace - later transformed into the Monbijou Park Gardens that connect nowadays the Oranienburger Avenue with the northern Spree River bank - as initially most highlighting constructions. Indeed the Second World War took away the Monbijou Palace constructed as noble womans residence or "Queens Palace" as well as it´s vecine building, the English St. Georges Church.

More contemporary and persisting constructions in the considered avenue figure in the New Synagogue, the Post Transport Administration Building (Postfuhramt), the Telegraph Building (Telegrafenamt) and the Friedrichstrassen-Passages initially constructed as second greatest Shopping Mall Gallery of the town that - during the course of time between 1908 and 2011 - run through a multitude of different use purposes, the latest and still most well known as TACHELES ART CENTER.

Nevertheless the nowadays road course doesn´t follow it´s apparent straight lined sight axis but - observed from northwest - turns slightly towards the northeast (to the left) at the height of the former Monbijou Palace towards the Hacke´scher Market Square where it ends at the headpoint at the Grosse Präsidentenstrasse that connects both ends of the "Y" formed by the proper Avenue and it´s variant called Monbijou Place. This shorter road segment led along the former Jewish Cemetery Berlin Mitte / Grosse Hamburger Strasse from which it is separated by a row of houses consisting in architectonic guild construction style with correspondingly decorated house facades.

Airview from Northwest inside the Oranienburger Strasse

Source: Google Earth

Map of Oranienburger Strasse

Source: Bing Sattelite

Certainly the assertion, that the New Synagogue and the Post Offie Building are the most outstanding constructions in the Avenue will not provoke any contradiction. The conclusion drawn after superficial comparative consideration of the building architectures with both an cupula crowned main and two side towers might already generate a certain protest, beeing the older one an history-filled religious temple building meanwhile the more modern post office building embodies a reminiscence of bourgeois talkativeness by written papers, what from jewish-orthodoxe point of view probably would be classified as "profane". Revolutionary (or heretical ?) would be the defense of the hypothesis, that Berlin urban architecture has been driven by a greater concept that projected an soaring development axis from the christmas-tree-like cupula top point of the Post Office over the Star of David on the Synagogues cupula until the lightning rod tip of the Television Tower of Berlin Alexanderplatz - but it seems to be so. All 3 buildings are standing on-line with the Oranienburger Avenue´s road axis and the connection of their top points would build a way up.

The new Synagogues towers and cupula inaugurated initially in 1866 and reconstructed in 1995

The Post Transport Office Building constructed from 1875 - 81 a decade later than the Synagogue
but it´s architecture probably inspired by the religious temple

Post Office, Synagogue Towers and Alexanderplatz-Tower as marker points
of an uprising curve line migth be a positive symbolism for the steadily growing Berlin town development.

Roadside Life, Art and Architecture

In continuation of the visual description of the world´s Orange and Nassau named sites the Oranienburger Avenue has been visited at 22nd August 2017 by the Independent Internet Image Agency Foto CID. Half a thousand photographies have been collected during an 4 1/2 hour photoexcursion without previous study of the roads history and characteristics and have been later reviewed, selected and digitally corrected. A selection of spontaneously compiled, representative images is now shown here as blog illustration to describe visually the actual moment appearance of an road in constant change and re-design that differs lightyears from the often intended characterization as important Berlin red-light-district.

Relaxed life of rather normal people was found in an town area with lots of ongoing greater building renewals and modernizations and already established lower-middle-upper class roadlife in Paris-styled fine roadside restaurants and cafeterias, modernized backyard galerias with omnipresent art and media proyects. Besides some erotic graffities, some historic facade sculptures with amazing female beauty and the rotating publicity for a massage studio in the vecine Brunnenstrasse only the Beate Uhse Erotic Toy supply shop remembers from a distance to the visual charateristics of an "red red light area" that still seems not to be very visible established here. Compared with the everywhere red-lights that attribute an amazing nocturne life stimulus to chinese towns that Berlin "Red-Light-Zone" inspires more to the unclasping of a prayer book.

One exception displays the now 110 year old facade sculpture of the "Tiger and the Girl", the probably first real Berlin pornographic artwork in public space that decorates the Tacheles-Building and that is now threatened by the still unconcrete modernizaton plannings that surround this old shopping gallery bought by an foreign investor. Might it´s dissappearance change the road character far away from red light towards political and religious correct sterility ? This is improbable because public life in Oranienburger Strasse is already characterized by well balanced harmony, tenderness and love-between-humans - expressions what probably doesn´t distinguish that road from other Berlin town quarters.

"How long is now ?" - "The Tiger and the Girl" sculpture at the Tacheles facade
as still surviving symbol for an red-light town life that is wiped out
by omnipresent sterile modernizing constructions ?

1. The Red-Light Quarter Aspect

Some tourist books and internet encyclopedias describe the Avenue as Red Ligth District. Those descriptions elsewhere sometimes have been followed by switching of the red lights where they have been targeted. As a matter in fact not one red lampion has been seen during the Foto CID tour through Oranienburger Avenue at 22nd August 2017. But, Thanks to "Oh my God", some "sexy" road life expressions in fact survived and the omnipresent orange lamps and interiour designs of many cafeterias make hopeful that the upper characterization of a Life&Tenderness Area in Berlin might overtake other town development concepts in a future.

Artwork at the "Tacheles" outside wall

The New Synagogue Main Door Ornament

View into the Amrit Restaurant

Magic of the Monbijou Park

View into the Amrit Restaurant

Magic of the Monbijou Park

"Best reason for a letter" over the Post Office main entrance

Naked Womans Breasts at house # 45

Entrance to the Art Courts (Kunsthof) at Oranienburger Strasse # 27

Asian beauty at the Amrit Restaurant

A secret meeting place inside the Heckmann Courts (Heckmannhöfe)

Real Sexy Phantasy Shop Window inside the Grosse Präsidentenstrasse

A view from inside the Beate Uhse Sex Toy Store

The Flagship Store is new established since November 2016

A view from the higher level of Beate Uhse Sex Toy Store

The Flagship Store is new established since November 2016

A Roadside Link to www.aphrodite-massagen.de at Oranienburger Tor

but the Studio is more than 1 kilometer to walk from here

A Gate into "Tacheles" with a painted story that maybe refers to 1001 Nights

2. The Southeastern Road Sector between Grosse Präsidentenstrasse and Monbijou Place

The building line that separates the Oranienburger Strasse from the Jewish Cemetery
seen in the mirror of a masquerade store window.

The house entrance passage of Oranienburger Strasse # 4
The Passage ends in the background at the former Jewish Cemetery.

Craft Guild symbolism at the facade of house # 4

Still unremoved facade element of house # 4 that represents an geographically mirrored equivalent to the Tacheles building on the opposite roadside at the opposite end of the Oranienburger Avenue. Both buildings facade decos seem to be mostly alien and anachronistic testimonies of an more than 100 year passed by and buried epoque. The 2 bull bucranions meanwhile stare at the visitors that do not enter inside the Beate Uhse store in the opposite house # 91. The 2 bulls bucranions could be sold to China to decorate there the Shanghai 1999 Culture Palace.
In the backyard of House Oranienburger Strasse # 4 is situated the Jewish Cemetery Berlin Mitte.

House Oranienburger Strasse # 4 (red outpointed) with butchery guild ornaments
and direct courtyard access towards the former Jewish Cemetery Berlin Center (red dashed line)
Airview Source: Google Earth

House entrance decoration detail of house # 84

Residencial garden backyard towards the Krausnick Park

Passage through house # 17

Ceiling decoration of House # 17 passage

3. The Central Road Sector along Monbijou Park, Synagogue and Post Office

Fragment of the Monbijou Palace found during reconstructions inside the Monbijou Park
in November 2006 with a partial conserved Phenix Bird Weaponshield

The Monbijou Theater inside the Monbijou Park Gardens

The Spree riverside building front of the historic Telegraph Office
seen from Monbijou Park

The Court Officials Residence Building (Hofbeamtenhaus) in Monbijou Street # 4
seen from inside the Monbijou Park

Main Telegraphe Office Building and New Synagogue seen from inside the Monbijou Park.
In the front the "Bowl Fountain" (Schalenbrunnen) designed by Jasper Halfmann that initially
since 1995 decorated the "Princess´s Garden" in Berlin Oranienstrasse and that was transferred later to Monbijou Park.
The fountain remembers to a Gyroscope respectively the famous "Winkel Towers" shape, standing on it´s head

Aspect of the Medical Herb and Ornamental Flower Garden Project
in the Monbijou Park Corner besides the Gyroscope Fountain

The Oranienburger Avenue towards the towns center at the height of the Monbijou Street and park corner

View into an Oranienburger Avenue roadside coffeeshop

Hummus and Friends in Oranienburger Avenue # 26

Que Pasa Restaurant Interiour

The New Synagogue Entrance Hall

One New Synagogue´s Cupula in the mirror of a Synagogues window

Decoration detail of the Synagogues Entrance

The New Synagogue in Oranienburg Avenue

Passage towards the Heckmannyards from Auguststrasse

Inside the Heckmann Höfe (Heckmannyards)

Passage towards the Heckmannyards from Oranienburger Avenue

Detail of the he Post Transport Office main entrance

The Post Office Main Entrance Archway decoration

Detail of the Post Office lateral entrance decoration in Tuckolskystrasse

Famous historic persons important for the development of post transport during the centuries
are represented on the Post office´s facade, for example
King Darius, Cristoph Columbus, Fürst zu Thurn und Taxis and the lesser known Segebarth

4. The northwestern Sector of Oranienburger Avenue along the former Friedrichstrassen Passagen Shopping Mall

Between Tucholskystrasse and Friedrichstrasse the southern side of the Oranienburger Strasse is dominated by a vast construction area. The site was formerly occupied by the Friedrichstrassen Passagen Shopping Mall the second largest modern shopping mall of the town in these decades constructed in 1908 with a new comercial concept consisting in single shops without separation walls and one central cashier (Source: Wikipedia). The new shopping concept was established probably one century too early and led to a soon bancrupt of that project. The shopping mall was overtaken by the Wertheim Store Chain that led the Mall more successfully from 1909 until the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914. For the following 10 years no usage data are available.

Since 1928 the German Electricity Company AEG started to use exposition halls inside the Friedrichstrassen Passagen Shopping Gallery to present new product lines on about 10.500 square meters and with 20 store windows. The building figured until 1945 as "Haus der Technik". During the 1930ies the 1st German Television Transmission was transmitted from here.

Parallel to the use as "House of Technology" since 1930 german NSDAP party organizations settled inside the former shopping mall gallery, between the latter the GERMAN WORKING FRONT and the ZENTRALBODENAMT of the SS. During the final phase of military combats around Berlin the building was fortified and blinded by it´s occupants. A so called "Deep Cellar" constructed aditionally in 1924 and called "Safe Vault Room" was then flooded by the SS and remains still under water until nowadays. The building complex was hit during the final combats but remained largely intact.

During the GDR/DDR times the Free German Trade Union Federation FDGB overtook the building that started to decay. Partially ruin it was then used by small shops, handcrafters, the German Travel Agency, the Artists School, the Dog Shearing Establishment, the College of Foreign Trade, the Syndicate of Electronic Producers RFT and several cinemas as for example the "Camera" and the "Oranienburger Tor Lichtspiele" OTL.

The Safe Vault Rooms in the 2 Deep Cellars, one of them flooded, should have remained under administration and use of the German Democratic National Peoples Army "Nationale Volksarmee" NVA as informs Wikipedia in it´s correspondent article.

When in 1980 the demolition of the partially still intact building started the Artists Initiative TACHELES occupied the former Shopping Mall Gallery and used it for widespread artistic and familiar activities until nowadays. The actual plans and destiny attributed to the area are mostly unknown. Tacheles is a jewish word and means "Tag hell es" = "Bring it to the Daylight" or "Speaking Plain Text".

Airview map of the former Friedrichstrassen Passagen in Oranienburger Avenue
Source: Wikimapia

Besides the "Tacheles" Building a vast demolition area that was occupied formerly by the
Friedrichstrassen Passagen Shopping Mall and other constructions starts in 2017 slowly to be reconstructed.

The Tacheles ruin facade with the famous "How long is now" Graffity
seen from the St. Georgios Patriarch Church of Antiochia in the Auguststrasse

Two old appartment buildings opposite the Tacheles Ruin - Oranienburger Strasse # 45 and # 46 with interesting facade decorations

Male facade ornament at house # 46

The ARCOTEL VELVET building that follows the TACHELES towards the Oranienburger Tor

The apartment and store building Oranienburger Strasse # 50

View from the western starting point at Oranienburger Tor inside the Linienstrasse (towards left) and the Oranienburger Avenue

The road junction Oranienburger Strasse / Auguststrasse

5. Review

The Oranienburger Avenue is an interesting example for a good intentioned town development that attempts to bring life into a town sector that markered a starting point for the 1930 years of political development that led initially to the destruction of important architectonic elements of the Avenue during the combat years of World War 2 and Post War demolitions.

The effects that had modern radio and TV media in it´s first beginnings on a population who´s phantasy and imaginary world was dominated probably still more by the still surviving and conservated house and building facade ornaments led to mass movilization effects that nowadays are impossible to think and repeat due to the much more matured level of education, the strengthening of individual characters against manipulative intrusions and the high degree of personal liberty reached in the nowadays german society.

To fill the more and more enjoyable and delightful decorated environment with the desired new life expressions the persisiting architectonic witnesses of a rather different social behaviour in long passed by historic times might disturb the wellness-feeling balance but avoid at time the human tendency of forgetting and repeating of once practiced behaviour patterns.

This digital picture book can contribute to awaken the question, which buildings have vanished in Oranienburger Avenue in Berlin like Monbijou Palace and Friedrichstrassen Galleries and which remained unchanged and so turn the mind towards thinking about what represented the "Queens Palace", a probably more feminist establishment, and the new shopping mall with modern telecommunication, electricity, electronic, film, cinema and mass media projects in the greater conflict between traditional religious education and habits - represented by the predominant Synagogue - and the modern way of life.

We could now turn to the question if the responsable for all that is Zar Peter during his 2 days visit of Monbijou in 1717 - what is not so probable - or if the desaster was generated by the Nazi Administration and the Zentralbodenamt - what is somewhat more probable - but it is not the authers intention to gamble about facts of earlier generations. The fact, that the Tacheles Art Initiative is now already a decade long driving energy pool for the dispute with the occcupied sites history and that a rather central Berlin town quarter with worthful development potential is still in ruin even 72 years after the end of the Great War, shows, that some real important background is covered there.

Might it be the stolen AMBER ROOM that is still hidden in the flooded deep cellars safe vault rooms ? Probably a genious intelligent small countryside construction company would have filled the cavity with concrete to finish now the endless discussions about Nazi-History and to prepare so the construction of new building blocks over that old stuff.

We tend more to think, hat the real amber room nowadays can be found inside the amber light flooded Amrit, Que Pasa and Hummus Friends Restaurants in Oranienburger Avenue that attribute a full-of-life, worthful, sane and friendly atmosphere to that important Berlin Road and that make possible to meet there sympathic people that could bring new ideas, new visions, new perspectives, new projects for a future constructive and peaceful living together in all Orange sites of that somewhat greater world.