Unter den Linden (under the linden trees) is a boulevard in the Mitte district, the heart of the historic section of Berlin, and was named so for its linden trees that line the grassed pedestrian mall between two carriageways. It runs the east-west from the site of the Stadtschloss royal palace at the Lustgarten park, to Pariser Platz and Brandenburg Gate. Eastward the boulevard crosses the Spree river at Berlin Cathedral and continues as Karl-Liebknecht-Straße. Major north-south streets crossing Unter den Linden are Friedrichstraße and Wilhelmstrasse.
It developed from a bridle path laid out by Elector John George of Brandenburg in the 16th century, and by the 19th century, as Berlin grew and expanded to the west, it became the best-known and grandest street in the city. In 1851 the famous equestrian statue of King Frederick II of Prussia was erected on the centre strip, designed by Christian Daniel Rauch. In 1934-1935 most of the linden trees were cut down and during the last days of WWII the remaining trees were destroyed or cut down for firewood. The present-day linden were replanted in the 1950s.
The photography shows Unter den Linden Boulevard in 1910, with people walking on the promenade and the famous and elegant Café Bauer, the first Wiener Kaffeehaus (Viennese coffee house) in Berlin. The Viennese coffee house is a typical institution of Vienna, that played an important part shaping Viennese culture, reason for which since 2011 the Viennese Coffee House Culture is listed as Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Austrian inventory of the National Agency for the Intangible Cultural Heritage, a part of UNESCO. The Viennese coffee house is described in this inventory as a place "where time and space are consumed, but only the coffee is found on the bill."
About the stamp
The stamp shows the Post Tower in Bonn and is one of the variable value stamps (Automatenmarken) about which I wrote here.
References
Unter den Linden - Wikipedia
Sender: Marius Vasilescu
Sent from Berlin (Berlin / Germany), on 21.06.2012
Photo: Max Missmann / Stadtmuseum Berlin
No comments:
Post a Comment