page_title: Breitscheidplatz
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Breitscheidplatz / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Emperor Wilhelm's Memorial Church in Berlin, Germany Deutsch: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche in Berlin (Deutschland). Blick durch die Kantstraße von Nordwesten, rechts das ältere "Romanische Haus". Français&#160;: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche à Berlin (Allemagne)
context_page_description: Breitscheidplatz is a major public square in the inner city of Berlin, Germany. Together with the Kurfürstendamm boulevard, it marks the centre of former West Berlin and the present-day City West. It is named after Rudolf Breitscheid.
context_section_description: Breitscheidplatz is at the end of the former Kurfürstendamm bridle path of 1542 which led Elector (Kurfürst) Joachim II Hector of Brandenburg to his hunting grounds in the Grunewald forest. In 1889 the square was given the name Gutenbergplatz after Johannes Gutenberg, the designer of the printing press; in 1892 it was renamed Auguste-Viktoria-Platz in honour of the German Empress Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein.
  Shortly after the square was laid out, Auguste-Viktoria's spouse Emperor Wilhelm II determined it as the site for the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in honour of his grandfather, Emperor Wilhelm I. The church, designed by royal architect Franz Schwechten, was a prime example of Romanesque Revival architecture. It was consecrated in 1895. Around the square until World War I, further development took place in a similar Neo-Romanesque style, including on the west side the Ausstellungshallen am Zoologischen Garten, an exhibition and event space completed in 1896, and opposite it the 1899 building on the site of today's Europa-Center which after 1916 housed the Romanisches Café. The square was sometimes called the Romanisches Forum (Romanesque Forum) or Romanisches Viertel (Romanesque Quarter) as a result.
caption: Auguste-Viktoria-Platz seen from Bahnhof Zoo, before 1900
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