Archive: The Capital City of Berlin - Documentation

Which functions should a street have: Is it a city street for through-traffic or an "internal" medium capacity connector? Discussions about the Dorotheenstraße show that the planning of roads is not always free of conflicts. Dorotheenstraße passes through both of the new blocks of buildings which make up the Jakob-Kaiser-Haus, east of the Reichstag. The German Bundes tag wanted the street to have a new function as a service road, which would have meant closing the street to through-traffic. The street, however, was traditionally used as an east-west connection for inner-city traffic, and especially as a way of bypassing Pariser Platz and the Brandenburger Tor. At this time the debate about whether to close the Brandenburger Tor to through-traffic was in full swing. The conflict about the status of this connection was finally brought to a close after a compromise was reached: The width of the roadway was reduced to two lanes of traffic. The office blocks now have an underground link and are also connected by two bridges which cross the street.

The Federation felt that quick vehicular access to the Parliamentary and Government Quarter meant a priority should be given to "government-related" traffic, while the Berlin authorities preferred reducing traffic to a minimum.