Friedrichstadt was an independent suburb of Berlin, and is now a historical neighbourhood of the city itself. The neighbourhood is named after the Prussian king Frederick I.
Geography
Friedrichstadt is located south of the Dorotheenstadt neighbourhood, and southwest of the historical suburb of Friedrichswerder. It is located south of the twin-city zone of Berlin and Cölln. Today, the northern part of the neighbourhood is located in the borough of Berlin-Mitte, while the southern part of the neighbourhood is located in borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. The border between the two boroughs runs along the southern side of Niederkirchnerstraße and Zimmerstraße.
The official boundaries of Friedrichstadt extend from the Spittelmarkt starting between northbound streets Niederwall- and Oberwallstraße, along Behrenstraße west to Ebertstraße, and then south over the Potsdamer Platz, Stresemann- and Gitschiner Straße, ending at the Hallesches Tor, and then again north over Linden- and Axel-Springer-Straße, back to the Spittelmarkt. A large portion of the Spittelmarkt and adjoining Hausvogteiplatz were once part of a military installation associated with the historical suburb of Friedrichswerder.
History
After the death of prince-elector Frederick William of Brandenburg in 1688, his son, prince-elector Friedrich III, later king Frederick I of Prussia, was allowed to establish a new city on the outskirts of Cölln, one of the precursor cities of modern-day Berlin. In order to assist with the street layout and the placement of buildings and houses, various architects and engineers, including Johann Nering, Johann Behr, and Martin Grünberg were called in. The new city was founded in 1691. Friedrichstadt was the third expansion of the Berlin-Cölln city center, after Dorotheenstadt and Friedrichswerder. Friedrichstadt was built outside of the Berlin's fortifications, south of Dorotheenstadt and west of Friedrichswerder. However, the city was protected both by the militia of Leipzig and a lengthening of the western city wall of Dorotheenstadt. Today, this is the site of Mauerstraße (English: Wall Street). Toward the south, Friedrichstadt originally extended to the present-day Zimmerstraße. From that southern point, the city extended approximately to the fortifications of the city of Neu-Cölln. To enter the city from Friedrichswerder, one entered through the Leipziger Tor (English: Leipzig Gate), and to enter from Dorotheenstadt, one came through the Friedrichs-Tor. This new area of the city, however, was not referred to as Friedrichstadt until 1706, fifteen years after its founding.
Friedrichstadt was designed with an unusually austere geometric style for the time, with broad streets which intersected at right angles to each other. Because the ground upon which the new neighbourhood was to be built was boggy and unstable, many houses in the city had to be built on stilts and stakes. As a result of government sponsored building rush, 300 houses stood in Friedrichstadt in 1692, just one year after its founding. Many settlers in the city were Huguenots seeking refuge from the French government. Jerusalem's Chapel, which used to stand outside of the built-up area before, was included into Friedrichstadt's municipal borders and became its first parish church. In 1689 and 1693–1695 Giovanni Simonetti restored and extended the chapel to become Jerusalem's Church, which was continuously staffed with a Calvinist and a Lutheran preacher from 1694 on, thus becoming a simultaneum. In 1701 the Judge Krause at the neighboured Kammergericht (then Supreme Court of Brandenburg) added a sepulchre chapel for his family to the church building. To accommodate more German and French settlers, ground was broken on the constructions of two large churches, the French Church of Friedrichstadt, and the German New Church, in 1701. Construction of new homes continued in the city until 1708. In 1711 at the corner of Jäger and Markgrafen streets a new building for the "Societät der Wissenschaften" (), founded by Gottfried Leibniz, opened. Today the building is occupied by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, which is the third oldest scientific academy in Europe.
Through a royal decree issued by king Frederick I on January 18, 1709 Friedrichstadt, along with the cities of Berlin, Cölln, Friedrichswerder, and Dorotheenstadt were to be consolidated into the "Königliche Haupt- und Residenzstadt Berlin" (), effective January 1, 1710. With that, the independence of Friedrichstadt ended, as it was incorporated as a part of the new Berlin.