Anyone who takes Wilhelmstraße into the center of Berlin, and who then wanders in an easterly direction will everywhere come upon the borders of old Friedrichstadt and historic Dorotheenstadt. History is palpable here – the history of the Prussian kings and the German Kaisers. And yet, it was Russian Tsar Nicolas I who in 1837 gave this part of the growing city a particular significance. He purchased the palace at number 7 Unter den Linden, which had been built in 1764 for Princess Amalie, Frederick the Great’s younger sister. The building served from then on as the Russian embassy.

Unter den Linden became an increasingly prestigious avenue. Starting from the Brandenburg Gate, whether to the east to the Schlossbrücke, or north to the Spree river, or south to what is now Behrenstraße – in the following years the whole neighborhood grew into a collection of magnificent build­ings expressing the new self-awareness and claims to power of the property owners and landlords of the time, many of whom were entrepreneurs. But only a few buildings from that period were spared World War II’s hail of bombs and shells. Whereas at the beginning of the war in 1939 thirty palatial high-rise buildings amazed the visitor, only eight remain today. And yet, these survivals are more than just stately monuments to the architectural art of days gone by. They also embody a strong link to history – and above all to the Hohenzollern family, the dynasty that deci­sively shaped the appearance of the German capital over the centuries. In this connection, one might mention the former “Kaisergalerie,” also known as the “Kaiserpassagen,” – the 19th-century equivalent of a shopping mall – which stood at the corner of Friedrich and Behrenstraße, where the Westin Grand Hotel now stands. Or the Zollernhof building – which today houses the ZDF television studio – or that very special jewel, the high-rise building at numbers 26-30 Unter den Linden, which the previous century knew as the Mercedes or Daimler building and which today forms part of the Kaiserhöfe complex.

It was at the beginning of the twentieth century that automobile manufacturer Gottlieb Daimler, in answer to an express wish from Kaiser Wilhelm II, opened an automobile showroom at numbers 28-30 Unter den Linden. Since His Majesty entertained a strong interest in the latest developments in modern technology, he practically became one of the noble automobile company’s regular customers in the years preceding the outbreak of World War I in 1914. The Auto Union AG (Audi) company also treated itself to a big automobile showroom near the Daimler dealership. Later, a showroom of the French automobile manufacturer Citroën AG was added – its address being namely numbers 26-30 Unter den Linden.

Thus the newly-created passageway between Unter den Linden and Mittelstraße owes its name, “Kaiserhöfe,” to the last German Kaiser’s penchant for modern automobile technology, which often brought Wilhelm II into the Daimler automobile company salesrooms. In view of the Kaiser’s frequent visits to the automobile showroom in Unter den Linden, it was obvious that re­fined gastronomy would also take up residence in one of the two spacious buildings. Quite logically, the Weinhaus Dressel wine-tavern – whose renown extended far ­beyond the Prussian borders – opened a restaurant with an entrance on Mittelstraße. A passage, however, also led from Unter den Linden past the automobile showroom directly to “Dressel’s” to use the familiar nick­name by which the restaurant was soon known.

Today, the Kaiserhöfe count again among the city’s most distinguished addresses. Between 2006 and 2008 the building complex on prestigious Unter den Linden was re-polished into a veritable gem by the Spanish and German investors of the Chamartin/Meermann-Gruppe. Past and future mingle in architectural synthesis. The realization of this unity necessitated the mobilization of a great deal of effort and imagination. Thus, modern art and historical jew­els are found next to one another in the Kaiserhöfe, and the splendid bust of Kaiser Wilhelm II gets along well with pop art from the 1950s. There is nothing shocking about the combination; instead, a magic wand seems to have melded every­thing into a harmonious whole. It was entirely with this goal in mind that the initiator of the Kaiserhöfe-Passage, the art lover and real estate developer Heinz H. Meermann, commissioned specialists and construction industry craftsmen to transform the widelyramified buildings into a new pole of attraction for Berliners and tourists alike. Architects Rüthnick and Kampmann have successfully stirred the building complex from its fairy-tale slumber and brought it alive in the 21st century. The way that this was accomplished in the planning and construction phases, and with an eye to the laws governing the preservation of historic buildings, is explain­ed in the annex on architecture written by architect Elisabeth Rüthnick and by Norbert Heuler of the state office for monuments.

Rainer L. Hein