Archaeologists have unearthed Berlin’s oldest street, and it is actually pretty cool. Even though it was likely built in the 13th century, the wooden planks look surprisingly fresh.
Containerbahnhof Frankfurter Allee
If, like me, you’ve spent a lot of time traveling Berlin’s S-Bahn ring, you might have noticed the large empty space directly to the east of the Frankfurter Allee S-Bahn station. It looks like any number of former industrial sites in the city: run-down, abandoned, with a few remnants here and there.
I was surprised to learn that this particular space wasn’t just a random factory: it was a so-called “Containerbahnhof,” where shipping containers could be on- and off-loaded to and from railcars.
The Leipziger Straße Complex
One of the more dominant features of Berlin’s central skyline is a row of apartment towers running along the southern side of Leipziger Straße. The apartment towers, along with buildings running on the northern side of the street, were built as an ensemble by the DDR between 1969 and 1982 and are referred to as the Leipziger Straße Complex.