18 The BerlinThe German Times Times October 2020

BPK-BILDAGENTUR (6), VG-BILDKUNST Good luck: Bruno Taut’s Horseshoe Estate, 1930 Bright lights, big city: Potsdamer Platz in 1930 Greater Berlin

PICTURE ALLIANCE/ULLSTEIN BILD PICTURE ALLIANCE/ULLSTEIN 100 years ago, Berlin’s mayor Adolf Wermuth created the modern metropolis

push through the legislation by and only New York and London Thirteen years later, however, as many inhabitants as it did BY PETER H. KOEPF drawing on the support of left- had larger populations. The city’s another Adolf came to power 100 years ago. Adolf Wermuth wing parties in the parliament, original six districts now became with a desire to make the proud has been laid to rest in peace in any streets in Germany while the centrist parties and the 20, and Berlin would soon be the city even bigger: Adolf Hitler a cemetery in a northern Berlin bear the names of indi- National People’s Party voted largest industrial city in Europe, harbored dreams of creating his neighborhood and even has an Mviduals who served The good Adolf: Adolf Wermuth, against it. with its own airports and Auto- “Germania,” the capital of the honorary grave maintained by the the common good in one way or mayor of Berlin from 1912–1925 There was plenty of resistance bahn. Having quickly become world. Instead, however, his vision city of Berlin. However, officials the other. In Berlin, this honor to the plan from other forces as a modern and liberal cultural resulted in Berlin being reduced still haven’t found an appropriate is often bestowed upon people known as the Rotes Rathaus, well. Brandenburg did not take metropolis, the city was now to rubble and ashes. Most of what street to name after him. In the whose names are unfamiliar to where this man accomplished a kindly to the loss of land and tax- called Greater Berlin. had been built since 1920 was district of Mitte, there are stipula- the broader public and whose most impressive feat. payers, and the rich municipal- Once the legislation passed, pol- destroyed, and the city’s inhab- tions that an equitable number of merit and deeds are equally Adolf Wermuth was respon- ity of Charlottenburg expressed icymakers could start regulating itants lived in precarious condi- streets be named after women and unknown. Yet there are also sible for paving the way to Berlin very little interest in sharing its what had, until then, been a state tions, facing deprivation and even that no two streets should have plenty of individuals who have becoming a modern metropolis. wealth with the poor Berliners of municipal anarchy in which starvation. Hitler and his cronies the same name. But sometimes had a huge impact on the city How did he do it? Roughly one at the city’s historical core. But “one community digs up the disappeared, and the streets that these rules are ignored – visitors but go entirely neglected when it hundred years ago, as Berlin’s Wermuth was able to win them water of the other,” as described had been renamed for them were to the city should know that when comes to street names. One such mayor, he enacted legislation that all over. The result was an over- by Alexander Dominicus, the renamed once more. Hundreds of they hop in a taxi for Goethes- individual is Adolf Wermuth, merged dozens of surrounding night increase of 1.9 million “new” mayor of Schöneberg. In Greater thousands of people had also dis- traße in Weißensee, they just may who has only one street in Berlin districts, cities and Brandenburg people added to the already 1.9 Berlin, it became possible to plan appeared, and factories and banks end up in Charlottenburg. named after him. Wermuthweg municipalities together with the million inhabitants of Berlin. and build joint electrical grids, turned their back on the divided is a small concrete-slab lane sand- core city districts of Berlin. On The city’s surface area increased water systems and transport city that was now cut off from the Peter H. Koepf wiched between high-rise apart- Oct. 1, 1920, although he was not from 67 to roughly 878 square networks while also addressing rest of the world. is editor-in-chief of ment buildings in Neukölln, far affiliated with any specific party kilometers. Only Los Angeles social problems such as housing Today, 30 years after Germany’s The German Times. removed from Berlin’s city hall himself, Wermuth was able to was greater in area at the time, shortages and food supplies. reunification, Berlin has almost

Yep, that’s a department store: The expansion of Berlin via Karstadt in Neukölln, 1929 the Greater Berlin Act of 1920

Berlin’s new administrative districts post-consolidation

1 Mitte 2 Tiergarten 3 Wedding 3 4 Prenzlauer Tor 4 5 Friedrichshain 6 Hallesches Tor 2 1 5 7 Charlottenburg 8 Spandau 6 9 Wilmersdorf 10 Zehlendorf 11 Schöneberg 12 Steglitz 13 Tempelhof 14 Neukölln 15 Treptow 16 Köpenick 17 Lichtenberg 18 Weißensee 19 Pankow 20 Reinickendorf

Legendary: Erich Mendelsohn’s Big screen: Mossehaus Universum movie in 1923 theater, 1928

Big stage: Scala Theater in 1929