Who shaped Berlin · Part 10
Russian Berlin in the 1920s: Charlottengrad, Nabokov and a village in Potsdam
In the 1920s so many Russians lived in west Berlin that Berliners spoke of Charlottengrad. Nabokov wrote his first novels here, and Tsvetaeva lived briefly near Prager Platz. Here are the places that tell of that time, and a Russian village in Potsdam that is a hundred years older still.
Charlottengrad was what Berliners called the west of the city in the 1920s
Up to half a million Russians lived in Germany in the early 1920s according to estimates, most of them in Berlin
1932 to 1937 Vladimir Nabokov lived on Nestorstraße, the last of his ten Berlin flats
1826 the Russian colony of Alexandrowka was built in Potsdam
A city within the city
After the revolution and civil war, hundreds of thousands of people left Russia from 1918. According to estimates, up to half a million of them lived in Germany in the early 1920s, most of them in Berlin. In the west of the city, around Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf, a Russian world emerged with publishers, newspapers, cafés and stages; Berliners mockingly called the area Charlottengrad, and others spoke of Moscow on the Spree.
The heyday lasted barely more than a decade. With inflation, the economic crisis and later Nazi rule, many moved on, above all to Paris. What remains are memorial plaques for writers, a cathedral, a cemetery and, somewhat older, a Russian village in Potsdam.
Where you can see it today
01 Nabokov's flat on Nestorstraße · Halensee
about 13 minutes on foot from Halensee S-Bahn station
Vladimir Nabokov, later famous for Lolita, lived in Berlin from 1922 to 1937 and wrote his first novels here in Russian. Nestorstraße 22 was the last of his ten Berlin flats and the one where he stayed longest, from 1932 to 1937 with his wife Véra and their son Dmitri. A bronze plaque from 1999 commemorates this in German and Russian.
02 Marina Tsvetaeva and Prager Platz · Wilmersdorf
about 5 minutes on foot from Güntzelstraße U-Bahn station to Trautenaustraße 9, about 3 minutes to Prager Platz
The poet Marina Tsvetaeva lived briefly in Berlin in 1922, at Trautenaustraße 9. Students from the Free and Humboldt Universities had a memorial plaque put up there in 1996. Just around the corner is Prager Platz, where Russian émigrés met in the Prager Diele in the 1920s, according to the district office also with Bertolt Brecht.
03 Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ · Wilmersdorf
about 12 minutes on foot from Fehrbelliner Platz U-Bahn station
The cathedral at Hohenzollerndamm 166 was built from 1936 to 1938 to replace an older church and consecrated on 13 May 1938. With its dome, onion cupola and four small onion towers in the Russian-Byzantine style, it is one of the most striking places of worship in west Berlin; the iconostasis comes from the earlier building. It is a living church, and visitors are welcome during services if they behave quietly.
04 Russian Orthodox Cemetery Tegel · Tegel
about 9 minutes on foot from Holzhauser Straße U-Bahn station
A Russian brotherhood bought the cemetery on Wittestraße in 1892, and the small church of Saints Constantine and Helena from 1894 is the oldest Russian Orthodox church in Berlin. Among those buried here is Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, the writer's father, who was killed in an assassination in Berlin in 1922. Funerals take place at the cemetery, and the chapel may be closed then.
05 Alexandrowka in Potsdam · Potsdam
about 37 minutes on foot from Potsdam Hauptbahnhof, about 23 minutes from Sanssouci Palace
Directions in Google Maps · Official site
A hundred years before Charlottengrad, Frederick William III had a village of their own built in 1826 and 1827 for the last twelve singers of a Russian soldiers' choir, named after Tsar Alexander I. The houses look like Russian log cabins but are Prussian half-timbered houses clad in wood. Since 1999 the colony has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage site, and a small museum in house number 2 tells its story. It fits well into a day trip, more in Potsdam in one day.
Good to know
- In church and cemetery: in Orthodox churches the faithful stand during the service, and women often wear a headscarf. Keep quiet and do not take photos during a service.
- A walk: Prager Platz, Trautenaustraße and the cathedral are close together in Wilmersdorf, half an afternoon on foot.
- More from the series: the Soviet side of the post-war period is in part 1: the Allies, Ukrainian Berlin of the 1920s in part 9.