Antique map - Berlin 1917

Pharus-Plan of Berlin in 1917 : the capital of the Empire before Greater Berlin in 1920, its railway stations, its underground railway, and its still-independent neighboring towns.

This Pharus-Plan shows Berlin in 1917, in the midst of the First World War. At that time, the city was the capital of the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Today, Berlin is a state in its own right, a city-state. Its French name is the same as its German name.

The city on the map is much smaller than the present-day city. Charlottenburg, Schöneberg, Wilmersdorf, Neukölln and Spandau were still independent towns, whose boundaries are traced on the map. They were not incorporated into Berlin until October 1, 1920, by the Greater Berlin Act, which united 94 municipalities, including eight towns, 59 rural municipalities, and 27 estates. Berlin, which had about 1.9 million inhabitants within its old boundaries, suddenly became a city of 3.8 million inhabitants, the third largest in the world after London and New York.

Places and neighborhoods shown:

• The Reichstag - the building, inaugurated in 1894, long lacked an inscription: “Dem Deutschen Volke” (“To the German people”) was only bolted to the pediment from December 20 to 24, 1916, in the middle of the winter of war, despite Wilhelm II's opposition. The bronze letters were said to have been cast from cannons captured in 1813. The 1917 map therefore shows the Reichstag having just received its motto.
• The Victory Column and the Siegesallee - the Siegessäule still stands on Königsplatz, in front of the Reichstag, and would not be moved to Großer Stern until 1938–1939. In the Tiergarten, the Siegesallee, an avenue lined with statues of sovereigns completed in 1901, earned Wilhelm II the popular nickname “Denkmalwilly”; its statues were removed in 1938.
• Charlottenburg, Schöneberg, Neukölln - these neighboring towns appear on the map with their names. Charlottenburg was founded in 1705 under the name Lietzenburg, a village of about a hundred inhabitants that was elevated to a town and then renamed by royal decree. Neukölln was called Rixdorf until 1912; having become a town in 1899, it changed its name thirteen years later.
• The railway stations and the underground railway - the legend distinguishes between long-distance railway stations, city railway stations, combined railway stations, the elevated railway (Hochbahn), and the underground railway (Untergrundbahn). Berlin has no central station: each major railway line has its own terminus station, such as Anhalter Bahnhof, Potsdamer Bahnhof, Stettiner Bahnhof, or Schlesischer Bahnhof, and the first central station (Hauptbahnhof) would not open until 2006.
• The postal districts - the large orange letters (N, NO, O, SO, S, SW, W, NW) indicate the postal districts, whose boundaries are shown in orange in the legend.

Cartographic clue: Pharus-Verlag was founded in Berlin in 1902, and its address, Lindenstraße 3, appears in the map's border. This is therefore the plan of the city where the publisher originated. Important buildings are drawn in perspective, and the legend states that the central areas are highlighted. It also indicates first aid posts, fire stations, post offices, schools, and theaters. The advertising banners surrounding the map announce the Kerkau-Palast, a café from 1909–1910 located at Behrenstraße 48, the Tattersall am Kurfürstendamm, a hotel in Frankfurt am Main, the Monopol-Metropole, and the Parkhotel Teufelsbrücke, in Klein-Flottbek near Hamburg, which offers rooms starting at 3 marks, with a four-hectare park, tennis courts, and a private pontoon.

In short: for anyone with ties to Berlin, who loves the history of the imperial capital or pre-Greater Berlin color plans, this map shows the city as it was before 1920, with neighboring towns that had not yet been incorporated.

What area does this map of Berlin cover? It covers central Berlin and its surroundings: the Spree, the Tiergarten, Unter den Linden, Moabit, Weißensee, as well as Charlottenburg, Schöneberg, Wilmersdorf, and Neukölln, then independent towns.

In what year was this map published? This map dates from 1917.

Reproduction of the “Pharus-Plan Berlin,” published in 1917 by Pharus-Verlag in Berlin.

Printed on 200 g/m² textured art paper. Landscape orientation, standard sizes 50x70cm and 70x100cm: easy to frame.