Hackescher Markt: Where Berlin's History Meets Its Restless Present
- Mads Weisbjerg Rasmussen
- 5 days ago
- 8 min read
Opening
There's a moment when you emerge from the S-Bahn station at Hackescher Markt that feels almost cinematic. The elegant arches of the 1882 railway viaduct frame a square that somehow contains multitudes: tourists snapping photos of Art Nouveau facades, Berliners grabbing coffee before work, street performers setting up for the evening crowd, and—just a few meters away—hidden courtyards that haven't been touched by mainstream commercialism since the Wall fell.
What strikes us about this corner of Mitte isn't the obvious beauty—it's how Hackescher Markt manages to hold so many versions of Berlin at once. The Prussian past, the Jewish heritage, the GDR neglect, the post-reunification renaissance, and today's tension between creative freedom and commercialization.
This isn't just a square. It's a portal into understanding why Berlin is the way it is.
A Square Born From Swampland and Royal Ambition
The story begins around 1750, when this area was little more than marshland outside Berlin's fortifications. King Frederick the Great decided the city needed to expand northward, and he tasked his city commander, Count Hans Christoph Friedrich Graf von Hacke, with overseeing the development.
Hacke transformed the swamp into a proper market square, though it wasn't officially named after him until 1840. For those first decades, it remained a modest space with wooden market stalls—a far cry from today's polished cafés.
What makes this origin story fascinating is how completely the area's purpose would shift over the following centuries. The square Hacke envisioned as a straightforward marketplace would become a center of Jewish intellectual life, then a symbol of East German decay, and finally one of Berlin's most visited destinations.
The Jewish Heart of the Scheunenviertel
By the 18th century, the area around Hackescher Markt was becoming something far more significant than a market square. Jewish residents, many of them fleeing persecution elsewhere in Europe, began settling in the surrounding streets of the Scheunenviertel—literally the "Barn Quarter," named for the hay barns that once stood here outside the city walls.
In 1737, King Frederick William I required Berlin's Jews to settle in this area. Rather than remaining a ghetto in the negative sense, the neighborhood developed into a vibrant cultural center. The first synagogue was built on nearby Heidereutergasse. A Jewish cemetery opened on Große Hamburger Straße. And in 1866, the magnificent Neue Synagoge rose on Oranienburger Straße—with its golden dome, it became one of Berlin's most striking buildings.
By the early 19th century, apartments around Hackescher Markt had become gathering places for Jewish intellectuals. An association for Jewish culture and science was founded here in 1821. This was Berlin at its most cosmopolitan—a city enriched by the contributions of Jewish scholars, artists, and businesspeople.
The darker chapters came later. In 1923, amid hyperinflation, the Scheunenviertel suffered anti-Jewish pogroms when a crowd waiting for unemployment benefits was told the money had run out. Agitators spread rumors that Jewish residents were to blame. And then, of course, came the Nazi era. Many Jewish residents of the Scheunenviertel were deported to concentration camps. The Neue Synagoge was set on fire during Kristallnacht in 1938—though a courageous police officer stopped the mob and called the fire brigade, limiting the immediate damage. The synagogue was later severely damaged in a 1943 air raid.
Today, you can still visit the Neue Synagoge (partially restored as a museum and cultural center) and trace the history of Jewish Berlin through institutions like the Anne Frank Zentrum, located just off Hackescher Markt in Haus Schwarzenberg.
The Hackesche Höfe: Art Nouveau Courtyards With a Purpose
If you only see one thing at Hackescher Markt, it should be the Hackesche Höfe—Germany's largest enclosed courtyard complex and one of the finest examples of Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau) architecture in Berlin.
Opened on September 23, 1906, the complex was the vision of property developer Kurt Berndt, who wanted to create something different from the cramped, gloomy courtyards typical of Berlin's tenement buildings. He commissioned August Endell, a self-taught architect and aesthetic theorist, to design the facades and interiors.
What Endell created in the first courtyard is genuinely remarkable. The walls are covered in polychrome glazed bricks that undulate with organic patterns—forty different window shapes break up the rigid geometry of the buildings, and the color palette shifts in subtle ways that reward close attention. This wasn't decoration for decoration's sake. Berlin was booming at the turn of the century, and Berndt needed eye-catching design to attract tenants to a courtyard that wasn't visible from the street.
The building's logic is worth understanding. Berndt designed the eight interconnected courtyards with specific functions: the first courtyard was for cultural purposes (ballrooms, theater spaces, restaurants), the middle courtyards were commercial (offices, workshops), and the rear courtyards were residential. This separation of uses was innovative for its time and helped establish the Hackesche Höfe as a self-contained urban ecosystem.
During World War II, the complex suffered damage but survived relatively intact. Under the GDR, however, it became state property and was almost completely neglected. By the time the Wall fell, the once-gorgeous facades had deteriorated significantly.
The resurrection came between 1994 and 1997, when investors spent 80 million deutschmarks restoring the complex to its original glory. The Chamäleon Theater now occupies one of Endell's original ballrooms. The Hackescher Höfe Kino screens arthouse films. And the restaurants—like Oxymoron, housed in spaces Endell designed himself—provide a tangible connection to the building's history.
Practical note: The inhabited courtyards close in the evening, but the front courtyards with bars, restaurants, the cinema, and theater remain accessible at night.
The Rebel Next Door: Haus Schwarzenberg and Dead Chicken Alley
Here's what makes Hackescher Markt genuinely interesting: right next to the meticulously restored Hackesche Höfe sits Haus Schwarzenberg, a building that looks like it hasn't been touched since 1990.
That's intentional.
Located at Rosenthaler Straße 39, Haus Schwarzenberg is what the entire neighborhood looked like after the Wall fell—crumbling facades, bare wires, and a sense of possibility that came from nobody really caring what you did with the space. After reunification, artists and activists occupied the building, determined to create an alternative cultural refuge that would resist the gentrification sweeping through Mitte.
The alleyway behind Haus Schwarzenberg—known as Dead Chicken Alley after the artist collective Dead Chickens, who moved in during 1995—has become one of Berlin's most important street art destinations. The walls are covered in layers upon layers of graffiti, stencils, paste-ups, and murals that change constantly. Famous artists like El Bocho and Miss Van have contributed work here, alongside countless anonymous creators.
But Haus Schwarzenberg is more than an outdoor gallery. It's also home to several meaningful institutions: the Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt honors a World War II resistance fighter who employed blind and disabled Jews in his brush workshop to save them from deportation. The Anne Frank Zentrum presents exhibitions about her life and the Nazi era in ways accessible to children and families. Jimmy C's mural of Anne Frank—which remains untouched while surrounding art changes constantly—marks the entrance to the center.
There's also the Monsterkabinett, a whimsical collection of mechanical and computer-controlled monster robots created by the Dead Chickens collective, plus Kino Central (a tiny independent cinema) and Café Cinema, a wonderfully atmospheric spot that opened on October 2, 1990—just hours before German reunification became official.
Why this matters: The contrast between Hackesche Höfe and Haus Schwarzenberg tells you everything about the tensions defining Berlin today. One is a success story of careful restoration and commercial development. The other is a conscious rejection of that path—a space that exists specifically to remain uncommercial, alternative, and slightly chaotic. Walking between them takes about thirty seconds. You're essentially moving between two philosophies of what cities should be.
Hackescher Markt Today: What You'll Actually Find
For all its historical weight, Hackescher Markt is very much a living neighborhood. Here's what to expect when you visit:
The Weekly Market
Every Thursday and Saturday, the square in front of the S-Bahn station hosts a market. It's not the largest in Berlin, but it has character—an eclectic mix of food trucks, fresh produce, handicrafts, and odds and ends. In winter, this transforms into a small Christmas market. The market stalls have been a feature of this square since Count von Hacke first laid it out in the 1750s, so you're participating in a tradition that predates most European nations.
The Food Scene
The gastronomy around Hackescher Markt reflects Berlin's international character. Within a few blocks, you'll find Vietnamese restaurants like Đistrict Một (known for its colorful plastic stools straight from Saigon street food culture), the Hackescher Hof Restaurant (which occupies the original 1907 wine restaurant space with intact Art Deco elements), tapas at Yosoy, Vietnamese pho at Com Nam, and Bavarian classics at Weihenstephaner—though that one's technically Bavarian, not Berlin.
For coffee, The Barn on Neue Schönhauser Straße is known for high-quality, sustainability-focused brews. Princess Cheesecake on Tucholskystraße does exactly what the name suggests. And if you want to feel like you're in a hidden world, find your way to Café Cinema in Haus Schwarzenberg.
Shopping
This isn't the place for bargains. The boutiques around Hackescher Markt specialize in Berlin designer labels, artisanal jewelry (TUKADU, inside the Hackesche Höfe, does handmade pieces and workshops), and fashion that's decidedly off-mainstream. You'll also find the Ampelmann Shop—one of the first, opened in 2001—selling merchandise featuring the beloved East German pedestrian traffic light figure.
For something completely different, there's a Harry Potter shop (Sieben Königslande) near Dead Chicken Alley and, inside the alley itself, a street art vending machine created by Berlin artist Marius Schäfer. These repurposed cigarette dispensers sell small packaged artworks from local artists.
Practical Information for Your Visit
Getting There
The Hackescher Markt S-Bahn station (lines S3, S5, S7, S9) puts you directly on the square. Tram lines M1, M4, M5, M6, and 12 also stop nearby, and the U8 (Rosenthaler Platz or Weinmeisterstraße) is a short walk.
Don't drive here. Parking is nearly impossible, and you'll want to explore on foot anyway.
Addresses
Hackesche Höfe: Rosenthaler Straße 40-41, 10178 Berlin
Haus Schwarzenberg / Dead Chicken Alley: Rosenthaler Straße 39, 10178 Berlin
Neue Synagoge: Oranienburger Straße 28-30, 10117 Berlin
Best Times to Visit
Weekday mornings offer the most relaxed atmosphere—you'll share the courtyards with coffee-drinkers and locals rather than tour groups. Thursday and Saturday mornings bring the market atmosphere. Evenings transform the area into a nightlife zone, with the bars under the S-Bahn arches particularly lively.
What Not to Miss
Walk through all eight courtyards of the Hackesche Höfe—each has its own character. Pay attention to the glazed tile facades in the first courtyard; those are Endell's original designs, now over a century old. Then step next door to Haus Schwarzenberg and explore the stairwells (covered in even more street art) and the smaller second courtyard behind the main alley.
What Hackescher Markt Tells Us About Berlin
There's a reason Hackescher Markt feels different from the tourist centers of other European capitals. It hasn't been sanitized or Disneyfied. The polished Hackesche Höfe exist right next to the deliberately unpolished Haus Schwarzenberg. High-end boutiques share the neighborhood with underground clubs. A square named after a Prussian military officer contains memorials to those the Prussian state's successors would later persecute.
We find this tension productive rather than contradictory. It's what makes Berlin feel honest in a way that few cities manage. The past isn't hidden or smoothed over—it's visible in the architecture, in the street names, in the institutions that memorialize both the city's cultural heights and its darkest chapters.
Hackescher Markt won't win any beauty contests in the conventional sense. The S-Bahn viaduct is industrial rather than elegant. The gaps between buildings—legacies of World War II bombing and GDR-era neglect—still haven't been filled in. But it's precisely this refusal to pretend that makes the area worth your time.
If you want polished European beauty, go to Vienna. If you want to understand why Berlin became the creative capital it is today—why artists and rebels and dreamers keep showing up here despite the city's growing pains—start at Hackescher Markt. Walk through the courtyards. Look at the street art. Sit in a café and watch the crowds. You'll begin to understand.
Further reading: If you're curious about the Jewish history of Berlin, our guide to the Scheunenviertel goes deeper into the neighborhood's heritage. And if the street art at Haus Schwarzenberg captured your imagination, we've written about Berlin's best street art neighborhoods beyond Mitte.