Berlin: Welthauptstadt
The World Capital



Aerial View of Berlin(s): The World Capital (Welthauptstadt)

---

Avenue of Splendours | Prachtallee

Following the Third Reich's transition from The Fürher to Kaiserdom, Berlin was reorganized along a central 5-kilometer (3.1-mile)-long boulevard known as the Prachtallee ("Avenue/Boulevard of Splendour(s)"). This runs south from a crossroads with the East-West Axis close to the Brandenburg Gate, following the course of the old Siegesallee through the Tiergarten before continuing down to an area just west of Tempelhof Airport. This new North-South Axis would have served as a parade ground, and have been closed off to traffic. Vehicles would have instead been diverted into an underground highway running directly underneath the parade route; sections of this highway's tunnel structure were built, and still exist today. No work was ever begun above ground although Speer did relocate the Siegesallee to another part of the Tiergarten in 1938.

The plan called for the building of two new large railway stations as the planned North-South Axis would have severed the tracks leading to the old Anhalter and Potsdamer stations, forcing their closure. These new stations would be built on the city's main Hundekopf (dog's head) geography S-Bahn ring with the Nordbahnhof in Wedding and the larger Südbahnhof in Tempelhof-Schöneberg at the southern end of the avenue.

---

Großer Platz | The Great Center

At the northern end of the avenue on the site of the Königsplatz there was to be a large open forum known as Großer Platz with an area of around 350,000 square metres (3,767,369 square feet). This square was to be surrounded by the grandest buildings of all, with the Kaiser's & Fürher's palace on the west side on the site of the former Kroll Opera House, the 1894 Reichstag Building on the east side and the third Reich Chancellery and high command of the German Army on the south side (on either side of the square's entrance from the Avenue of Splendours). On the north side of the plaza, straddling the River Spree, Speer planned to build the centrepiece of the new Berlin, an enormous domed building, the Volkshalle (people's hall), designed by the Kaiser himself. It would still remain the largest enclosed space in the world had it been built. Although war came before work could begin, all the necessary land was acquired, and the engineering plans were worked out. The building would have been over 200 metres (656 feet) high and 250 metres (820 feet) in diameter, sixteen times larger than the dome of St. Peter's Basilica.

---

Arch Of Triumph | Triumpfbogen

Towards the southern end of the avenue would be a triumphal arch based on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, but again, much larger; it would be almost a hundred metres high, and the Arc de Triomphe (at the time the largest triumphal arch in existence) would have been able to fit inside its opening, evidently with the intention of replacing the rather long history associated with this Arch and in particular the unique ceremonies, with reference to the history of France, connected with it

---

Other Pictures of Berlin