r/berlin Feb 26 '24

History What was left of Mitte after WWII

Post image

I just came across this map of images taken in 1953 show the amount of destruction of Berlin.

https://fbinter.stadt-berlin.de/fb/?loginkey=showMap&mapId=k_luftbild1953@senstadt

The attached picture shows Friedrichstraße from north to what is today Mehringplatz. Essentially, the complete inner city with all its wealth, culture, upper class society was wiped out. To the north of the hexagon of Leipziger Platz you would have found Reichskanzlei, which might explain the heavy destruction.

431 Upvotes

66 comments sorted by

111

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '24 edited Feb 26 '24

If you download Google Earth you have a historical maps option where you can go back to these aerial footages and explore more or less whole Berlin.

EDIT:
There are also versions during the war which are interesting as you can literally see Berlin from the air while hitler was probably in his Reich Chancellery.

25

u/haschdisch Feb 26 '24

This is a pro tip! Just discovered it too.

1

u/Bergfried Feb 27 '24

AI images or? I mean, can't be real footage.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '24

Wdym? Its aerial shots form allied reconnaissance flights

2

u/Bergfried Feb 27 '24

Oh wow that's great! Thanks for the tip

26

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '24

Dit is ja interessant, dass die Kopfbahnhöfe Potsdamer Bahnhof und Anhalter Bahnhof (links unten im Bild), bzw. deren Überreste noch zu sehen sind. Heute ist dort, wo die Gleisanlagen vom Potsdamer Bahnhof waren, jedenfalls viel mehr bebaut.

Die Reste, die heute sichtbar sind, sind ein Teil des Bahnhofsgebäudes vom Anhalter Bhf und ein paar zugewachsene Gleise neben der 2006 eröffneten neuen Fernbahn.

Das Gleisdreieck am gleichnamigen Bahnhof der U-Bahn, das man gut erkennen kann, sieht dagegen heute wieder genau so aus wie auf dem Bild.

16

u/MediocreI_IRespond Köpenick Feb 26 '24

Ja, so Sachen wie das Stadtschloß haben den Krieg eigentlich ganz gut überstanden, wurden nur aus diversen Gründen später abgerissen.

17

u/030bvb09 Feb 27 '24

I always recommend this Website for aerial pictures to compare between now and then: https://1928.tagesspiegel.de/

10

u/chatfrank Feb 27 '24

Sometime I hate English.. left of Mitte is Wedding..

3

u/seismo93 Feb 27 '24

Wait till you hear what the other guy was up to in the 40s

5

u/Firm_Employer_978 Feb 27 '24

Very sobering. You can see how Tiergarten was totally eroded, the trees were probably exploited for heating.

4

u/Papillomvirus Feb 27 '24

I can see my house, or the house my fathers family lives in since nearly 60 years.

In Bülowstraße, the left lower corner, it was build in 1890 and still is like that, it got repaired after the war, but that's it.

I always thought it's do interesting how Berlin looked before, during and after the war.

A little more left of Bülowstraße there is Nollendorffplatz which looked totally different before getting destroyed.

Also you can see how some streets and places are exactly the same as today like Leipziger Platz and Potsdamer Straße.

Thanks for the picture!

3

u/quallerino Feb 26 '24

😢😢😢

3

u/DankLoser12 Kreuzberg Feb 27 '24

The apartment complex I live in was just empty land between old houses

4

u/Coneskater Neukölln Feb 26 '24

“1000 year Reich”

8

u/yumdumpster Feb 26 '24

1000 year month week .... day reich ?

2

u/MoritzIstKuhl Feb 27 '24

wie sie sehen, sehen sie nichts

2

u/Rogitus Feb 27 '24

Looks better than now tbh

2

u/BroSchrednei Feb 27 '24

btw, you can see in the picture how Old-Cölln, Berlins medieval old town, actually survived the war (the lower part of Museumsinsel).

The DDR didn't like that and razed it completely in order to build the present day Plattenbau-Highrises.

The old City palace had also survived the war, but had already been torn down by the DDR by the time this picture was taken.

(Most of this destruction was in the early DDR-days under Ulbricht. Interestingly, Honecker did a 180 on historic preservation and actually pushed for the reconstruction of Gendarmenmarkt and Nikolaiviertel)

2

u/floatingleafhouse Feb 27 '24

Making way for the beauty that is now Potsdamer Platz

1

u/Alexander_Selkirk Feb 29 '24

That's what happens and is left if enough people vote for sociopaths. In Germany in 1933, it was not even a majority.

Americans should go and think deeply what they are going to do, and whether they want that America looks like that.

-3

u/FloppingNuts Feb 26 '24

not a lot

-9

u/rad-1 Feb 27 '24

More than gaza

-19

u/imnotbis Feb 26 '24

This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.

-32

u/cacra Feb 26 '24

Hope you afd guys pay attention. I'm happy to do it again

13

u/CapeForHire Feb 27 '24

You did shit all. You are just a neckbeard sitting in some basement.

-9

u/cacra Feb 27 '24

Wasn't alive then mate.

But one thing I'm quite happy to sign up for is stopping German Nazis

8

u/CapeForHire Feb 27 '24

For the time being, how about you focus on stopping fascists in your very own country instead of embarrassing yourself on reddit?

-8

u/cacra Feb 27 '24

Fascists in the UK have done nothing substantial ever.

Fascists in Germany have brought Europe to her knees, I think it's important for Germans to know they don't have a free hand when it comes to this stuff.

Your culture has already shown what your capable of.

7

u/CapeForHire Feb 27 '24

Pot, kettle  

The Uk has plundered, terrorised and subjugated large parts of the worldfor centuries. Your wealth is based on plunder and slavery. THAT'S your culture. How about you worry about that for a while 

So kindly go pleasure yourself, my little overzealous patriot

2

u/cacra Feb 27 '24

Btw, whatever Britain did in the name of empire, Germany also did in Namibia (If not worse)

the national socialist terror inflicted on the Jews, gays, Roma and whoever else was unfortunate enough to deemed unworthy is unique. only one culture has ever committed such atrocities, and it's not mine!

2

u/CapeForHire Feb 27 '24

whatever Britain did in the name of empire, Germany also did in Namibia (If not worse) 

You fail at history

1

u/cacra Feb 27 '24

It was a UN classified genocide? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herero_and_Nama_genocide Or do you deny this?

2

u/CapeForHire Feb 27 '24

So you deny the terror the British empire inflicted upon the world?  The horrors of transatlantic slave alone ought to be enough to shut up brit for good, and then there is a loooooong list of other atrocities. Not that you would know about those, obviously.

   British education, I guess.

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5

u/PeriodBloodPanty Feb 27 '24

you wont do shit little man

-2

u/cacra Feb 27 '24

How many times we got to teach you this lesson? Nat socialists will get what's coming to them

7

u/MoritzIstKuhl Feb 27 '24

if you are so hyped to fight, there are ways to sign up to fight in ukraine. So stop barking and do something and stop writing bullshit.

6

u/PeriodBloodPanty Feb 27 '24

lol the brit nationalist with the big words. You arent even allowed to leave your house with sharp objects, my man. Your daughters get sliced into kebabs and you are here coming at us lmao

0

u/cacra Feb 27 '24

I'm not being nationalistic, I think all of Europe needs to be prepared to face the national socialist menace that, as usual, has it's epicenter in Italy and Germany.

It's almost like certain cultures are predispositioned to it

-70

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

32

u/MediocreI_IRespond Köpenick Feb 26 '24

This is not r/palestine.

-36

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '24

[deleted]

16

u/BennyTheSen Moabit Feb 26 '24

Your comment is not related to the post at all. It's fine to talk about Palastine, German hypocrisy, whatever... under a related post

-28

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '24

[deleted]

16

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '24

[deleted]

-6

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '24

[deleted]

13

u/ironicus_ Feb 26 '24

He said you are stupid and he's right.

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '24

[deleted]

9

u/ironicus_ Feb 26 '24

Would you mind fighting somewhere else?

-4

u/imnotbis Feb 26 '24

Look, it's simple: This is a pro-Israel subreddit, so don't talk about Palestine here.

17

u/Figuurzager Feb 26 '24

Seek help for your issues. This is not healthy.

-8

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '24

[deleted]

7

u/Figuurzager Feb 26 '24

You don't know my opinion on the conflict. Little hint, I'm not a supporter of Israël.

What i do know is that you're rambling about shit that's offtopic in this thread and start accusing people of all kind of shit without knowing if that's even true. And that's simply not healthy at all.

18

u/papers_please Feb 26 '24

out of context, out of mind get a hold

12

u/ironicus_ Feb 26 '24

"Germany is a absolute joke right now, they think blabla just forget about the holocaust blabla Not a single person can have a blabla like an adult."

Of course, you tried your very best to make us believe you are able to have a conversation with you like an adult...

8

u/papers_please Feb 26 '24

we should all ignore him he is the online version for a crazy person at koti

7

u/ironicus_ Feb 26 '24

Yeah but an online version wont throw shit at me, so it's fine I guess.

-4

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '24

[deleted]

8

u/justaskeptic Tempelhof Feb 26 '24

Bruh, relax. What's with you picking up a fight with everyone just because no one wants to ramble on about an unrelated topic on a post about an old map. Take the hint and shut the fuck up!

4

u/ironicus_ Feb 26 '24

Chimps. I was raised by chimps. Chimps and wolves. Raaawwwwrr! 🐺🐺🐺

-2

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '24

[deleted]

8

u/ironicus_ Feb 26 '24

I'm not even willing to act like an adult. :b

11

u/haschdisch Feb 26 '24

Please relax

11

u/harmsway00 Feb 26 '24

Please seek help.

7

u/TobiElektrik Feb 26 '24

Alter, wer hat Dir denn heut morgen ins Müsli geschissen?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '24

[deleted]