Tauentzienstraße is a major shopping street in the western part of Berlin, Germany. It is approximately 500 metres long and lies between two important squares, Wittenbergplatz

Wittenbergplatz

Wittenbergplatz is a square in the western part of Berlin, Germany, within the district of Schöneberg near the border with Charlottenburg.It was laid out between 1889 and 1892 and named after the storming of the town of Wittenberg on 14 February 1814 by Prussian troops under General Bogislav...

 and Breitscheidplatz

Breitscheidplatz

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.-Geography:...

. While the eastern half belongs to the Schöneberg

Schöneberg

Schöneberg is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg....

 district, the western part on the other side of Nürnberger Straße is in the Charlottenburg

Charlottenburg

Charlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte...

 district.

History

The street was laid out during the Wilhelmine

Wilhelmine

Wilhelmine is a term for the period of German history, also known as the German Empire. The term Wilhelmine Germany refers to the period running from the proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Kaiser at Versailles in 1871 to the abdication of his grandson Wilhelm II in 1918.Although the father of...

 period in the manner of a Parisian boulevard, and named for the Prussian general Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien

Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien

Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel Graf Tauentzien von Wittenberg was a Prussian general of the Napoleonic Wars....

. During the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

, it formed part of the commercial center of West Berlin

West Berlin

West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...

, along with the nearby Kurfürstendamm

Kurfürstendamm

The Kurfürstendamm, known locally as the Ku'damm, is one of the most famous avenues in Berlin. The street takes its name from the former Kurfürsten of Brandenburg. This very broad, long boulevard can be considered the Champs-Élysées of Berlin — full of shops, houses, hotels and restaurants...

. Tauentzienstraße is actually the busier of the two streets due to the concentration of shops along its length.

Attractions

Midway along the street is a sculpture, entitled Berlin

Berlin (sculpture)

Berlin is the name of a sculpture on the Tauentzienstraße in western Berlin, the capital of Germany.First conceived in 1985 and unveiled by the husband-and-wife sculpting team of Brigitte Matschinsky-Denninghoff and Martin Matschinsky in 1987, the sculpture's principal motif, a "broken chain", was...

, that expresses the "broken" nature of the city during the Cold War.

Stores along its length include the famous KaDeWe, the largest department store in continental Europe

Continental Europe

Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....

.