The Straße des 17. Juni (German pronunciation: [ˈʃtʁaːsə dɛs ˈziːpˌtseːntən ˈjuːniː], English: 17 June Street) is a street in central Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is the western continuation of the Unter den Linden. It runs east-west through the Tiergarten, a large forest park to the west of the city centre. At the eastern end is the Brandenburg Gate and at the western end is Ernst-Reuter-Platz in Charlottenburg. Halfway along the street is the Berlin victory column (Siegessäule). The Soviet War Memorial, built in 1945, is the only major structure on the course of the street between the Brandenburg Gate and the Siegessäule.
Before 17 June 1953 the street was called Charlottenburger Chaussee, because it ran from the old city center (Berlin-Mitte) to the borough of Charlottenburg through the Tiergarten ("Animal garden"). The name of the street continues about 600 yards west of the park.
It was made into a paved road in 1799, and owing to Berlin's rapid growth in the 19th century it became a major thoroughfare to the affluent western suburbs. At the outbreak of World War One in early August 1914, hundreds of thousands of Berliners cheered the military parade which took place here [1] At the outbreak of World War Two, no such scenes were seen, according to the American journalist and historian William L. Shirer,[2] but after Adolf Hitler returned from his "inspection" of Paris in the summer of 1940 a huge victory parade was held.[3]
Charlottenburger Chausee was a part of Ost-West-Achse (East-West Axis), which during the Nazis became a triumphal avenue lined with Nazi flags. During the Nazi era the boulevard was made broader and the old Prussian victory monument, Berlin victory column (Siegessäule) was moved from outside the Reichstag (which the Nazis never restored after the fire in February 1933) to the roundabout in the middle of the Tiergarten, where it has remained since 1938. In the last weeks of World War II, when Berlin's airports were unusable, it was used as a landing strip.[4]
In 1953 the street was re-named Straße des 17. Juni, to commemorate the uprising of the East Berliners on 17 June 1953, when the Red Army and GDR Volkspolizei shot a great number of industrial workers dead. Today the street is sometimes used for mega-events such as love parade or live8. In summer 2006 the street was closed for six weeks to use it as Fanmeile (fan mile) during the 2006 Football World Cup. It also serves as the starting point for the Berlin Marathon.