Wilhelmstrasse
| Wilhelmstrasse | |
Wilhelmstraße today: anti-car bomb bollards at the British embassy | |
| Former name(s) |
|
|---|---|
| Namesake | Frederick William I of Prussia |
| Type | Street |
| Length | 2,400 m (7,900 ft) |
| Location | Berlin, Germany |
| Quarter | Mitte, Kreuzberg |
| Nearest metro station | |
| Coordinates | 52°30′29″N 13°22′39″E / 52.50792°N 13.37744°E |
| North end |
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| Major junctions |
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| South end |
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| Construction | |
| Inauguration | After 1731 |
Wilhelmstraße, or Wilhelmstrasse (see ß; German pronunciation: [ˈvɪlhɛlmˌʃtʁaːsə]; transl. William Street) is a major thoroughfare in the central Mitte and Kreuzberg districts of Berlin, Germany. Until 1945, it was recognised as the centre of the government, first of the Kingdom of Prussia, and later of the unified German Reich, housing in particular the Reich Chancellery and the Foreign Office. The street's name was thus also frequently used as a metonym for overall German governmental administration: much as the term "Whitehall" is often used to signify the British governmental administration as a whole. In English, "the Wilhelmstrasse" usually referred to the German Foreign Office.