Friedrichshain | ||
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Quarter of Berlin | ||
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Coordinates: 52°30′57″N 13°27′15″E / 52.51583°N 13.45417°ECoordinates: 52°30′57″N 13°27′15″E / 52.51583°N 13.45417°E | ||
Country | Germany | |
State | Berlin | |
City | Berlin | |
Borough | Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg | |
Founded | 1920 | |
Area | ||
• Total | 9.78 km2 (3.78 sq mi) | |
Elevation | 52 m (171 ft) | |
Population (2009-06-30) | ||
• Total | 114,050 | |
• Density | 12,000/km2 (30,000/sq mi) | |
Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) | |
Postal codes | (nr. 0201) 10243, 10245, 10247, 10249 | |
Vehicle registration | B |
Friedrichshain is a district of Berlin, Germany. From its creation in 1920 until 2001, it was a freestanding city borough. Formerly part of East Berlin, it is adjacent to Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg and Lichtenberg.
Friedrichshain is named after the Volkspark Friedrichshain, a vast green park at the northern border with Prenzlauer Berg. In the Nazi era, the borough was called Horst-Wessel-Stadt. Friedrichshain is one of the trendy districts of Berlin and has experienced gentrification.
Friedrichshain is defined by the following roads and places, starting clock-wise in the west: Lichtenberger Straße, Mollstraße, Otto-Braun-Straße, Am Friedrichshain, Virchowstraße, Margarete-Sommer-Straße, Danziger Straße, Landsberger Allee, Hausburgstraße, Thaerstraße, Eldenaer Straße, S-Bahn-Trasse, Kynaststraße, Stralauer Halbinsel, Spree.
The largely working-class district was created in 1920 when Greater Berlin was established by referendum, incorporating several surrounding settlements. Friedrichshain united the Frankfurter Vorstadt, already part of Berlin, and the villages of Boxhagen and Stralau. It took its name (meaning 'Frederick's Grove') from the Volkspark ('People's Park'), which was planned in 1840 to commemorate the centenary of Frederick the Great’s coronation. Much of the district was settled in the rapid industrialization of the 19th and early 20th centuries, led by growth in manufacturing and crafts. It owed much to the opening of the railway line between Berlin and Frankfurt (Oder) in 1846 (which terminated near the site of today's Berlin Ostbahnhof), and the opening of the first waterworks in 1865 at Stralauer Tor. In 1874 the Krankenhaus im Friedrichshain was opened, Berlin's first hospital beside the university clinic Charité. In the early 1900s, the district's largest employer was the Knorr-Bremse brake factory; the Knorrpromenade, one of Friedrichshain's most attractive streets, was built to house the management. The street network of Friedrichhain was originally specified in the Hobrecht-Plan and the area was part of what came to be known architecturally as the Wilhelmine Ring.