Berlin Customs Wall

Berlin Customs Wall around 1855

The Berlin Customs Wall (German: "Berliner Zoll- und Akzisemauer" literally Berlin customs and excises wall) had been a ring wall around the historic Berlin that had no defense function. It was used to levy taxes on import and export of goods (tariffs) which was the primary income of many cities at the time.

History

The wall was erected after the old Berlin Fortress was given up in 1734 - its walls had been in a deteriorated state already and the military function was questionable. Frederick William I of Prussia ordered the construction of stockades around the city which were completed in 1737 - the new ring fence incorporated the existing Northern "palisade line" that was built in 1705. The place of this oldest stockade is still visible through the street name "Linienstraße" (line street). Only very few parts of this original customs wall were made of stone.

The original customs wall had 14 city gates which were mostly named after the city that its ensuing road would head on to. Additionally the river Spree was blocked with customs gates named "Oberbaum" (upper beam) and "Unterbaum" (lower beam) after the heavy tree trunk, covered in metal spikes, that was used as a boom to block the river at night to prevent smuggling. The new wall was engirding not only the Berlin city including its suburbs but it encompassed some rural lands in the east and south.

wall monument made from excavated stones

With the growth of Berlin the stockades and gates were moved in the following decades as needed. Between 1786 and 1802 the wooden stockades were replaced by stone walls at a height of 4 meters. Also a number of gates were rebuilt in a representative style like the Brandenburg Gate. In the middle of the century a number of gates were added to meet the increased transport requirements - this includes the New Gate 1832, Anhalt Gate 1839/1840, Köpenick Gate 1842 and Water Gate (1848).

The middle of the century is marked by new train lines reaching the city that would end in stations erected in front of the walls usually near one of its gates. This was the Potsdam Station 1841, Anhalt Station 1842, Stettin Station 1842, Hamburg Station 1846 - only the Frankfurt Station 1842 was built just inside the ring wall. An interconnection railway line ("Berliner Verbindungsbahn") for goods and military transport was built in 1851 connecting the terminal stations which turned Berlin into a central transport hub of Prussia and the German Customs Union.

With the rise of the city new suburbs were built outside of the Customs Wall with the wall to be more and more felt as a problem to the continued development. In 1860 the Customs Wall was formally dissolved and on 1. January 1861 the city amalgamated its suburbs which made for the city population to double in statistics. The remaining walls were torn down for the most part between 1867 and 1870 - including most of its gates. Only some representative gates were kept with only the Brandenburg Gate to be rebuilt after its demolition in World War II.

With the old walls out of the way the city developed quickly almost doubling in population in the following decade. The interconnection railway line (on the southern and western part) was superseded by the circle line railway in 1871 - the existing railway track were then used by horsecar lines. The southern lines were used as the construction ground for the first electric metro line in 1900 which is now the U1 (Berlin U-Bahn) - its metro stations Silesian Gate (Schlesisches Tor), Cottbus Gate (Kottbusser Tor) and Halle Gate (Hallesches Tor) point to the heritage.

Gates

The 18 city gates and 2 river gates are still visible on the map by having given names to places and streets. In clockwise order these are

• Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor at Pariser Platz /Unter den Linden) the only city gate left.
• Unterbaum (near Unterbaumstraße).
• New Gate (Neues Tor at todays "Platz vor dem Neuen Tor", design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel).
• Oranienburg Gate (Oranienburger Tor at Torstraße /Friedrichstraße) - the original gate was sold to Groß Behnitz
• Hamburg Gate (Hamburger Tor at Torstraße /Kleine Hamburger Straße).
• Rosenthal Gate (Rosenthaler Tor at Torstraße /Rosenthaler Straße near Rosenthaler Platz).
• Schönhausen Gate (Schönhausener Tor at Torstraße /Schönhauser Allee).
• Prenzlau Gate (Prenzlauer Tor at Torstraße /Prenzlauer Allee).
• Bernau Gate (Bernauer Tor, since 1809 "Königstor", at Greifswalder Straße /Am Friedrichshain)
• Landsberg Gate (Landsberger Tor at Landsberger Allee /Friedenstraße).
• Frankfurt Gate (Frankfurter Tor, west of todays place somewhere near U-Bahnhof Weberwiese).
• Stralau Gate (Stralauer Tor, earlier named "Mühlentor" / Mills Gate) (Warschauer Straße /Stralauer Allee /Mühlenstraße).
• Oberbaum (Oberbaumbrücke).
• Silesian Gate (Schlesisches Tor, earlier "Wendentor" / Wends Gate) (Skalitzer Straße /Schlesische Straße am U-Bahnhof Schlesisches Tor).
• Köpenick Gate (Köpenicker Tor at Lausitzer Platz).
• Cottbus Gate (Kottbusser Tor at Skalitzer Straße /Kottbusser Straße near U-Bahnhof Kottbusser Tor).
• Water Gate (Wassertor on todays Wassertorplatz): named for crossing the new Luisenstadt Channel.
• Halle Gate (Hallesches Tor at Hallesches Ufer /Mehringplatz near U-Bahnhof Hallesches Tor), After the original gate was dismantled, two buildings were built by Heinrich Strack in 1876-9. The twin structures were destroyed in WW2.
• Anhalt Gate (Anhalter Tor at Stresemannstraße /Anhalter Straße near S-Bahnhof Anhalter Bahnhof, design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel).
• Potsdam Gate (Potsdamer Tor at Leipziger Platz /Potsdamer Platz; design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, damaged in WW2, demolished in the 1950s).

• 
  Brandenburg Gate in 1764, view to the west
• 
  Leipzig Gate/Potsdam Gate around 1830
• 
  Rosenthal Gate around 1800
• 
  Halle Gate around 1800
• 
  Hamburg Gate 1860
• 
  Water Gate in 1865
• 
  New Gate 1866
• 
  Oranienburg Gate in 1867

Literature

Helmut Zschocke: Die Berliner Akzisemauer – Die vorletzte Mauer der Stadt, Berlin Story Verlag, Berlin 2007. ISBN 978-3-929829-76-1