Giesebrechtstraße

The Hobrecht Plan of 1862 already included the development of this area in Department V for southern Charlottenburg. An "upscale residential development" was planned, but this was not carried out. It was not until the plans for the construction of Kurfürstendamm from 1882 that detailed development plans were also drawn up for the area west of Leibnizstrasse, which were also implemented. The route is not yet shown on the map of 1893, but already in 1900 it is noted without a name. Development began in 1904, so that on 20 August it was named after the historian Wilhelm von Giesebrecht (1814-1889), to match Mommsenstraße, Niebuhrstraße, Sybelstraße, Dahlmannstraße, Droysenstraße, Waitzstraße, Gervinusstraße and Rankestraße, which were also named after historians, as well as other streets in the district that bear the names of scientists. The street was numbered according to the horseshoe principle.

In the Berlin address book of 1905, house numbers 1-23 are listed as new buildings or building sites with the corresponding owners (master bricklayers, master carpenters and architects or the Kurfürstendamm soil company).[https://digital.zlb.de/viewer/image/34115495_1905/4114/ Giesebrechtstraße]. In: Berliner Adreßbuch, 1905, Part 5, Charlottenburg, p. 47. (in German) In 1906, numbers 6, 11-14 and 16-19 were already listed as building sites or new buildings, and in 1907 only numbers 17 and 19 were listed, which means that the construction work can be considered complete.

File:Charlottenburg Giesebrechtstraße 5-001.jpg

File:Charlottenburg Giesebrechtstraße 7.jpg

File:Giesebrechtstraße 20-001.jpg

The building ensemble Giesebrechtstraße 5–8, 13-15 with the adjacent houses Clausewitzstraße 9 and Sybelstraße 64, located between Kurfürstendamm and Meyerinckplatz, was built between 1904 and 1906 and is today a listed "ensemble" as a group of tenement houses.{{cite web|url=https://denkmaldatenbank.berlin.de/daobj.php?obj_dok_nr=09020570|title=Mietshausgruppe Giesebrechtstraße 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15 Clausewitzstraße 9 Sybelstraße 64|publisher=Landesdenkmalamt Berlin|accessdate=17 October 2022|language=German}} Buildings No. 3,{{cite web|url=https://denkmaldatenbank.berlin.de/daobj.php?obj_dok_nr=09096170|title=Mietshaus, Läden Giesebrechtstraße 3|publisher=Landesdenkmalamt Berlin|accessdate=17 October 2022|language=German}} No. 6{{cite web|url=https://denkmaldatenbank.berlin.de/daobj.php?obj_dok_nr=09020572|title=Mietshaus, Laden Giesebrechtstraße 6|publisher=Landesdenkmalamt Berlin|accessdate=17 October 2022|language=German}} and No. 20 {{cite web|url=https://denkmaldatenbank.berlin.de/daobj.php?obj_dok_nr=09096171|title=Mietshaus Giesebrechtstraße 20|publisher=Landesdenkmalamt Berlin|accessdate=17 October 2022|language=German}} are listed as architectural monuments in the Berlin monument list. The corner building Giesebrechtstraße 9 / Kurfürstendamm 63 was destroyed during the Second World War and replaced by a new building. The opposite corner house, Giesebrechtstraße 10 / Kurfürstendamm 92, was also damaged but could be rebuilt. The other houses remained largely undamaged.

From the 1950s until the 1990s, Giesebrechtstraße 3 was home to the Wiener Stüber'l, a wine tavern with impressive interior design that was popular with celebrities and was forced to close with the death of its owner Friedrich Müller. Today, the premises are home to the Julep's restaurant . At Giesebrechtstraße 5, Muslims living in Berlin founded the Islamische Gemeinde Berlin e. V. in 1922. Maulana Sadr-ud-Din from Lahore, a missionary imam of the Ahmadijja-Andschuman-Ischat-i-Islam-Lahore movement, is considered the founder.{{cite web|url=http://www.helmut-zenz.de/hzislam8.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105105223/http://www.helmut-zenz.de/hzislam8.html |archive-date=2012-11-05 |title=Vorgeschichte|website=helmut-zenz.de|accessdate=17 October 2022|language=German}} The community built the Wilmersdorfer Mosque in Brienner Straße. The Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation, Gemeinnützige Nachlaßstiftung GmbH is located at Giesebrechtstraße 7.{{cite web|url=https://www.fassbinderfoundation.de/kontakt/|title=Kontakt|website=fassbinderfoundation.de|accessdate=17 October 2022|language=German}}

From the early 1930s, Giesebrechtstraße 11 was home to Salon Kitty, a high-class brothel run by Kitty Schmidt, which was allegedly used for espionage purposes from 1939 by Walter Schellenberg, assigned to the task by Reinhard Heydrich's Reich Security Main Office (RHSA).{{cite news|author=Hanna Huhtasaari|url=https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/nazi-bordell-verfuehren-fuer-den-fuehrer-a-947817.html|title=Verführen für den "Führer"|newspaper=Der Spiegel|accessdate=17 October 2022|language=German}}{{cite web|author=Sven Felix Kellerhoff|url=https://www.welt.de/geschichte/zweiter-weltkrieg/article122762197/Salon-Kitty-die-Realitaet-des-Gestapo-Bordells-in-Berlin.html|title="Salon Kitty" – die Realität des Gestapo-Bordells|newspaper=Welt|date=16 May 2022 |accessdate=17 October 2022|language=German}} Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the later head of the RHSA from January 1943, lived in the neighbouring house at Giesebrechtstrasse 12. From August 1967 to July 1968, the political commune Kommune 2 lived at Giesebrechtstraße 20.Werner Kahl: Vorsicht Schußwaffen!: von kommunistischem Extremismus, Terror und revolutionärer Gewalt. Olzog, Münich (in German)

In the traditional Café Richter directly on Hindemithplatz, various furnishings are reminiscent of the old days of coffee houses when the street was considered a meeting place of the Charlottenburg scene. Several restaurants and a pub are still located in the street.

Since then, the street developed into a place of residence for the upper middle classes, among them a large proportion of Jewish residents. According to the address book, military officers, civil servants, professors, lawyers, pensioners, architects, doctors, engineers, merchants, master craftsmen as well as servants (porters, gardeners) and also several artists lived here.

Well-known residents were or are:

{{alumni|people|date=February 2024}}

• Eduard Künneke, operetta composer and his daughter Evelyn Künneke, singer, dancer and actress, no. 5
• Fritz Oliven, lawyer, writer, librettist, No. 11
• Ernst Kaltenbrunner, head of the Reich Security Main Office, No. 12Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (Hrsg.): Der Ort des Terrors. Bd. 3. Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald (in German)
• Wolf Vostell, painter, sculptor and happening artist, No. 12
• Joseph Wulf, German-Polish historian of Jewish origin and Holocaust survivor, No. 12{{cite web|url=http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/institute/sonst/aj/PERSONEN/WULF/wulfvorw.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305035711/http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/institute/sonst/aj/PERSONEN/WULF/wulfvorw.htm |archive-date=2016-03-05 |title=Wulf, Joseph|website=uni-heidelberg.de|accessdate=17 October 2022|language=German}}
• Friedrich Wilhelm von Willisen, military man, advisor to Heinrich Brüning, No. 15
• Edith Lorand, violinist, no. 13
• Stefan Lukschy, director and author, No. 13
• Paul von Hase, city commander of Berlin 1940–1944, resistance fighter, No. 17
• Grethe Weiser, actress, No. 18
• Hubert von Meyerinck, actor, lived here with his mother, No. 18
• Michael Naumann, former Minister of State for Culture
• Peter Raue, lawyer, art lover and promoter
• Gerty Simon, German-English photographer, Clausewitzstraße No. 2 (at Meyerinckplatz), photographic studio{{cite news|url=https://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/sie-portratierte-die-beruhmtheiten-ihrer-zeit-nur-ohne-glamour-6857092.html|title=Wiederentdeckung aus den 1920er Jahren Berlins|newspaper=Der Tagesspiegel|date=10 July 2021|accessdate=17 October 2022|language=German}}

To this day, the street has remained an upmarket residential area, due in no small part to the size of the flats. Numerous doctors, psychotherapists, lawyers and financial service providers have their business premises here, as do the Winter bookshop at No. 18{{cite web|url=http://www.buchhandlungwinter.de/cms/|title=Buchhandlung Winter|website=Buchhandlungwinter.de|accessdate=17 October 2022|language=German}} and the Horst Dietrich Gallery at No. 19.{{cite web|url=https://www.galerie-dietrich.de/|title=Galerie Horst Dietrich|website=galerie-dietrich.de|accessdate=17 October 2022|language=German}}

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• {{commons category-inline|Giesebrechtstraße (Berlin-Charlottenburg)}}

Category:Streets in Berlin

Category:Charlottenburg