Karl-Liebknecht-Straße

Major street in the Berlin Mitte district

Karl Liebknecht Straße is a major street in the central Mitte district of the German capital Berlin. It is named after Karl Liebknecht (1871–1919), one of the founders of the Communist Party of Germany. The street connects the Unter den Linden boulevard with the Prenzlauer Allee arterial road leading to the northern city limits. Although part of the street dates back to medieval times, most of the buildings at its side were built in the 1960s, when East Berlin's centre was redesigned as the capital of East Germany.

Karl Liebknecht Straße starts at the Schloßbrücke (“palace bridge”) on Spree Island as part of the German federal highways B 2 and B 5. On the left lies the Lustgarten, while on the right is the Schloßplatz, the name of which refers to the old Baroque style Berliner Schloss (English: Berlin Palace). After being demolished by authorities in East Germany following the Second World War, the DDR era Palast der Republik was built here in 1976, until it was demolished in 2008 following the Bundestag's decision to rebuild the historically renowned palace. The street runs northeast, crosses the Liebknechtbrücke, leaving Spree Island, and meets Spandauer Straße, where the Bundesstraßen turn to the right. Karl Liebknecht Straße continues northeast, passing the Fernsehturm and Alexanderplatz through the old Königsstadt quarter to the border of Mitte borough. There, at the place of the old Prenzlauer Tor (“Prenzlau gate”) it crosses Torstraße and Mollstraße and continues as Prenzlauer Allee to the north of the city.

At its start, Karl Liebknecht Straße passes by two of the most prominent sites of Berlin, the evangelical Berlin Cathedral (Am Lustgarten 1) and the Berlin Palace (Schloßplatz 1), which is currently under reconstruction (currently projected to be fully completed in 2020, as the Humboldt Forum).

The numbers 1, 3, and 5 belong to the new DomAquarée building, completed in 2003. It houses several restaurants and shops as well as the Radisson SAS Hotel Berlin, the Sea Life Centre with the AquaDom aquarium and the GDR museum.

At no. 8, there is the St. Mary's Church (St. Marienkirche), the second oldest church in the centre of Berlin and the oldest one still in use. It was first mentioned in 1292 as the church of Berlin's “new town”, right in front of the New Marketplace. Nowadays, St. Mary's is one of three churches of the Evangelical St. Mary's & St. Peter's parish, which has around 3,100 members.

Number 13, the northernmost part of a Plattenbau apartment block, holds the Berlin Carré, a shopping mall of about , which was built in 1969 to replace the Zentralmarkthalle (“central market hall”) at the same place. In 2000, the cabaret theatre Sündikat (“sindicate”) also found a home in this building.

Number 29 is known as Pressehaus am Alexanderplatz, home of the Berliner Verlag, which publishes the popular Berliner Zeitung daily newspaper. The building also houses the Berliner Journalistenschule (“Berlin journalists school”), a college for the further education of journalists, which has its own radio and TV station.

World War II and the subsequent reconstruction of East Berlin as the capital of the German Democratic Republic meant the end for several of Berlin's important and well known buildings. The most prominent of course being the Berliner Schloss (“Berlin Palace”). It was first built as a castle as early as 1443 under Frederick II, Elector of Brandenburg. It was largely rebuilt as a palace a hundred years later and became the family seat of the House of Hohenzollern, rulers of the Kingdom of Prussia and later of the German Empire. The building was demolished in 1950 on the order of the East German government. It was replaced by the Palast der Republik, which was demolished from 2006 until 2008, after the removal of asbestos. Another well known building was the elite school Joachimsthalsches Gymnasium, which had moved to the premises of the modern DomAquarée in 1650, after its old building in Joachimsthal had been destroyed in the Thirty Years' War. The school moved out of the building in 1880. In 1886 the Zentralmarkthalle (“central market hall”) opened in two buildings left and right of the street, right at the railway tracks. It was built to replace the weekly markets at the Neuer Markt (“new marketplace”) at the foot of the St. Mary's Church, which had taken place for several centuries. The market hall survived the war, but was demolished in 1969 to make room for the current buildings. Another part of East Berlin's reconstruction program was the five star Palasthotel (“palace hotel”) at Liebknechtbrücke. It was built between 1976 and 1979, based on a design by Ferenc Kiss. The hotel had 600 rooms with 1,000 beds and a conference hall with about 2,000 seats. It was closed for all East German guests, as one had to pay in a hard currency instead of the local East German mark. In 1992, the hotel was taken over by the Radisson group. It was demolished in 2000 to make room for the new DomAquarée, which was opened in 2003.

Karl Liebknecht Straße is serviced by five BVG bus lines with stops at Memhardstraße, Fernsehturm, St. Mary's Church and at Lustgarten. The lines are 100 between Alexanderplatz and Zoologischer Garten, 200 between Michelangelostraße and Zoologischer Garten, 248 between Alexanderplatz and Südkreuz, M48 between Alexanderplatz and Busseallee in Zehlendorf and the express bus TXL to Berlin Tegel International Airport. The northern part of the street is also serviced by the tram line M2 with stops at Mollstraße and Memhardstraße. M2 connects Alexanderplatz and Heinersdorf (Pankow borough).