The Friedrichstraße - (Frederick Street) - Cross - Berlin

The Friedrichstraße (IPA: [ˈfÊ€iË?dʀɪçˌʃtÊ€aË?sÉ™]) (Frederick Street) is a major shopping street in (east) central Berlin. It runs from the northern part of the old Mitte district (north of which it is called Chausseestraße) to the Hallesches Tor in the district of Kreuzberg. Due to its north-southerly direction, it forms important junctions with the east-western axes, most notably with Leipziger Straße and Unter den Linden. The U6 subway runs underneath. Many of the finest fashion brands have an outlet on Friedrichstraße. It has also been a playground for creators of modern architecture during the general refurbishment period in the 1990s. Despite being of such critical economic importance, Friedrichstraße is remarkably narrow, causing regular traffic jams. The famous 20th century architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe once created a charcoal image of the Friedrichstraße, idealizing it as a street with the potential for all the hopes and dreams that the early 20th century envisioned for the future. Three blocks to the west of Friedrichstraße is the famous Wilhelmstraße, the historic heart of the old government quarter (Regierungsviertel) until 1945. During the Cold War and division of Berlin, the Friedrichstraße underground station, despite being located in East Berlin, was utilized by several western S-Bahn lines and the West Berlin subway line U6. The station served as a transfer point for these lines, and trains actually stopped there (i.e. it was not a ghost station (Geisterbahnhof) unlike other stations of the western subway network located in East Berlin.) Western passengers could walk from one platform to another without ever leaving the station or needing to show papers, much like air travellers changing planes at an international airport. Westerners with appropriate papers could also enter East Berlin here, including passengers on long-distance trains arriving from the West. On the other hand, the only purpose served by the above-ground Friedrichstraße train station for Eastern travelers was to enable them to access the S-Bahn (eastbound only) and, when permitted by the government, to cross the border to travel to the West.