Bertolt-Brecht-Platz

Bertolt-Brecht-Platz is a city square in Berlin’s Mitte district, within the historic Friedrich-Wilhelm-Stadt. The square covers about 3,500 square metres in total. The Berliner Ensemble borders its western side, while Am Zirkus and Schiffbauerdamm mark the surrounding edges. Trees line three sides around a small triangular lawn.

It received its name in 1963, several years after Bertolt Brecht’s death. Brecht strongly influenced the Berliner Ensemble theatre beside this square. After the war, redevelopment cleared nearby ruins and expanded the space as a theatre forecourt. The square gained a Brecht monument in 1988. Peter Flierl designed it with Fritz Cremer’s bronze statue and Carl Wloch’s stone steles.

The northern side once held a market hall from 1868, which later became a circus building. Max Reinhardt turned it into the Großes Schauspielhaus in 1919. Structural problems led to its closure in 1980 and demolition in 1985. Yoo Berlin replaced that building there in 2011. That ten-storey apartment building stands beside Ganymed restaurant at the western corner. Beneath the square, the Südpanke flows towards the Spree at Schiffbauerdamm.