Kollwitzplatz

Kollwitzplatz is a city square in the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg, district of Pankow. The square forms the center of the so-called "Kollwitzkiez". It was named, on 7 October 1947, after the German graphic artist and sculptor Käthe Kollwitz, who spent a large part of her life here in the house at Weissenburger Straße No. 25 (destroyed in the war, since 1947 property Kollwitzstraße No. 56a). Until then, it was called Wörther Platz; a name that was given to it when the area was planned for construction in 1875. Indirectly, this name is also a reminder of her husband Karl Kollwitz, who worked here as a physician until 1940 and thus shaped the area around the square independently of his wife. The triangular complex is bordered by Kollwitzstraße, Knaackstraße and Wörther Straße (with Husemannstraße branching off from it). In total, the square is about 6000 m2 in size.

==History== The area around the square was bought by the German-Dutch Actien-Bauverein to systematically develop it as a residential area in the Wilhelminian period until 1875. Shortly after the Franco-Prussian War, the square was given the name Wörther Platz after the Battle of Wörth, which, like the surrounding street names, was a reminder of scenes and German commanders of the Franco-Prussian War. From 1885 to 1887, the site was designed as a typical Wilhelminian ornamental square, presumably according to the designs of the then city garden director Hermann Mächtig. During the Second World War, the residential area was largely spared damage, except for three corner plots of the square and the southern Kollwitzstraße. As a result, only a few houses were renovated and modernized by the end of the 1970s. In 1949 Kollwitzplatz was redesigned according to the designs of the garden architect Reinhold Lingner.