Good Evening! Back again in "Riehmers Hofgarten", as the correct german name is. And now we are inside! Where other backyards have waste containers, beton or dirty brick walls, Riehmers backyard has a plastered street that crosses the whole bloc till the next street, and we have trees and fine gardens. And the houses are very rich sculpted with ornaments from different styles.... How could it be that these whole complex is so much different? We must go back into Berlins`s history: Between 1850 and 1900, the time of the "industrial revolution", Berlin exploded and doubled its inhabitants every 20 years. Manufactories were build and destroyed, they were rebuild more countyside, destroyed again, and so on. Berlin grew as the rings of a tree. In 1862 presented Berlins leading constructor and engineer JAMES HOBRECHT his street- and settlement plan for the upgrowing city. He planned a big ring of alleys surrounding the old city, and here in the south all these alleys should be named after famous officers and generals of the preussian armee. Till today we call this the "Generals Lane", and parts of this big alley are YORK street, GNEISENAU street, KLEIST street, BUELOW street..... A young bricklayer, WILHELM RIEHMER, had a good nose for a big deal and planned a fine quarter at the Yorck street, a quarter for the upper class people. He began to buy those small claims that had been typical for Berlin. Riehmer collected claims for nearly one decade. In 1871 Riehmer tried to build his first house. It was a corner house, in the middle between two streets, but the building Authorities canceled it. They although canceled a second corner house. (These corner houses are situated at the end of this private street, where it reaches the next street). Riehmer took a lawyer and went to the courthouse - and he collected more claims. Riehmer won and in 1881 he could begin to build his dream with his own company. Between 1881 and 1893 he built a whole complex with 21 houses, situated on 23 old claims. He constructed 26 stairways, 198 flats with 3-5 rooms, bureaus, stores, medical stations.... And now we are inside! (to be continued) I hope you enjoy this story, as I when taking this pics. Thanks for your interesting, your comments and my special thanks for those who take the last of my pics as favorites. Bye from Berlin - billcody