Vossstrasse

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The site of the former Reich Chancellery at the corner of Vossstrasse and Wilhelmstrasse. The Borsig Palais, incorporated into the structure, previously occupied the corner.
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The site of the former Reich Chancellery at the corner of Vossstrasse and Wilhelmstrasse. The Borsig Palais, incorporated into the structure, previously occupied the corner.

Vossstrasse (or Voßstraße: see ß) is a street in central Berlin, capital of Germany. It runs east-west from Ebertstrasse to Wilhelmstrasse in the borough of Mitte, one street north of Leipziger Strasse.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the area was the site of several mansions owned by members of the Prussian aristocracy, some of which were taken over by government departments. One of these was the home of August Graf von Voss-Buch (1788-1871), a Prussian military officer who was at one time commander of the "Garde-Grenadier-Regiments Kaiser Alexander von Russland," which was stationed in Berlin. On his retirement in 1872 he built a mansion, the Vosssche Palais, between Wilhelmstrasse and Königgrätzer Strasse (now Ebertstrasse), and created the connecting street which bears his name.[1] (Another street under the same name in Berlin's district Tempelhof-Schöneberg was named after Johann Heinrich Voss.)

Map of area, showing location of Chancellery and bunker in relation to Vossstrasse
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Map of area, showing location of Chancellery and bunker in relation to Vossstrasse

Among the notable buildings in the Vossstrasse in the mid 1930s were: on the north side, numbered from east to west; Vossstrasse 1 - Borsig Palais, on the corner of Wilhelmstrasse, built for the German businessman and engineer August Borsig (1804-54), although he never actually moved into it; 2 - the head office of Mitropa, a catering company which managed (and still manages) sleeping and dining cars throughout the German rail system; 3 - Embassy of Bavaria; 4-5 - from 1880 to 1935 the Justice Ministry of the German Empire, Weimar Republic and Third Reich[1]; 6 - head office of the German Reich Railway Co; 10 - Embassy of Wurttemberg; 11 - the Nazi Party's Berlin offices; 15 - Bank of Delbruck Schickler & Co; 19 - Embassy of Saxony. On the south side, numbered from west to east; Vossstrasse 20 - Reich Naval Office; 22 - Mosse Palais, home of the German Jewish publishing tycoon Hans Lachmann-Mosse (1885-1944); 24-32 - the rear of the enormous Wertheim Department Store; 33-35 - more offices of the German Reich Railway Co. The other numbers were mostly residential properties.

In 1938 the entire north side of the street, except for the Borsig Palais (Vossstrasse 1), was demolished to make way for the new Reich Chancellery building, built by Albert Speer for Adolf Hitler and opened in January 1939. [2]. Incorporating the Borsig Palais within its structure, the Chancellery extended back along the whole length of Vossstrasse, a distance of 430 metres: its official address was Vossstrasse 6. The building was severely damaged by Allied bombs in February 1945, and the ruins later demolished by the Soviet occupying forces. Hitler killed himself in the Führerbunker, a little further north, on 30 April 1945 [3].

From 7 October 1949 Vossstrasse was located in East Berlin, which did little to develop the Potsdamer Platz area as it was in the sensitive border zone, along which the Berlin Wall would eventually divide the city. By 1956 there was only one surviving building in the entire length of Vossstrasse - part of the Deutsche Reichsbahn offices on the south side (Vossstrasse 33) [4]. When the Wall went up in August 1961, much of Vossstrasse became stranded in no man's land. Today there is still little of note along the street, although it continues to attract curious visitors looking for the site of the Reich Chancellery and the Führerbunker.

Vossstrasse from the air in December 2003.
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Vossstrasse from the air in December 2003.

In the aerial photograph on the right, taken in December 2003, Vossstrasse runs from top to bottom just to the right of centre. The Reich Chancellery ran the full length of the north (left) side, up to Wilhelmstrasse, the street running from left to right at the top of the picture. Today there are several GDR-era apartment blocks, built between 1986 and 1990, and some fenced-off waste land behind the apartment blocks along Wilhelmstrasse. On the south (right) side of Vossstrasse, the sole-surviving pre-war building, part of the German Reich Railway Co. offices (Vossstrasse 33), can be seen, mostly surrounded by the empty site of the Wertheim Department Store. Note also the concrete "lid" over the U-Bahn line.

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