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Wilhelmine Ring (Berlin)


The Wilhelmine Ring is the name for a belt of distinctive multi-occupancy rental housing blocks constructed in the second half of the 19th century around the historic city center of Berlin. It is characterized by a dense settlement pattern with four- to five-story residential buildings with side and rear wings around an inner courtyard. The designation reflects the period of origin of this town planning solution under the German monarchs Wilhelm I and Wilhelm II.

The Wilhelmine Ring comprises large parts of the Berlin subdistricts Wedding, Gesundbrunnen, Prenzlauer Berg, Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg, Neukölln, Schöneberg, Tiergarten, Moabit and Charlottenburg. It arose primarily in the still undeveloped area between the Berlin Customs Wall, which was removed in the 1860s, and a railway line constructed between 1867 and 1877 to encircle the city.

The commencement of large-scale German industrialization in the latter part of the 19th century led to a pressing need for labor, which was met by a strong rural exodus favoring Berlin, where abundant jobs could be found. Living accommodations for this rapid influx of workers were needed in the immediate vicinity of the new factories, for which there was no space within the old city limits.

In 1861 a large scale incorporation of neighboring settlements had expanded the area of Berlin by some 70 percent. According to census figures, 547,571 people lived in the city in that year. This population almost tripled in the course of the ensuing 30 years, without significant areal growth of the city. The planning for the necessary housing was undertaken in 1862 by James Hobrecht, whose “Plan for developing the surroundings of Berlin”, as its name indicates, included an area far exceeding the limits of the just-enlarged city. It specified a network of ring and radial streets with relatively large block sizes, which facilitated the rapid construction of large adjoining buildings in which multi-family rental accommodations were planned.


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