Gaertner’s painting shows the area of middle-class Berlin that had to give way, during the Wilhelmine era, to the grand public face that the emperor and his family wanted to present. In 1896 the whole row of houses of the Schloßfreiheit on the banks of the Spree close to the palace was demolished and replaced with the Monument to Emperor. The name Schloßfreiheit came into being in 1678 when the Magistrate of Friedrichswerder was denied ultimate judicial control of this area. The fine bourgeois facades with their warehouses and gold and silver shops are overshadowed by the dome of the palace. On the opposite bank there are coaches, people out for a stroll, and children playing. The whole scene is framed by important works by Schinkel: on the right the Building Academy and on the left the bridge to the palace.