Above Charlottenbogen …
…lies Moabit. There are traditional taverns, restaurants and coffee houses. Expelled by the ‘Sun King’, tens of thousands of Huguenots fled France a long time ago in the direction of Germany – the Prussian King invited them to settle in Berlin. One of them was an innkeeper named Martin. He was not very big, so people called his inn “beim kleinen Martin” (later it became “Martiniquenfelde”, the name of a street in Moabit, until it was named after her during the lifetime of the Empress Augusta).
In the first half of the 19th century the population of Berlin doubled due to industrialization. People who found work in Berlin worked hard and earned recreation at weekends. Those who wanted to have their senses scattered moved towards dancing on weekends. People got into a gondola at Tiergarten and had themselves shuttled over to Moabit. With lyre, harp or guitar, the people who boarded the rocking boats were immediately attuned to the pleasure: “A ditty, a ditty!” – and everyone sang along.
The Spree as a transport route was conveniently located for industrial settlements in Moabit, and thus many companies were soon located there. The infrastructure was expanded and later in the century buses also went to Moabit. The gondolas were no longer necessary, and operations were suspended. Maybe not without melancholy for many excursionists, who probably felt like in Venice on the Canale Grande on the rocking barges with the colorful figureheads.
