The Berlin House Numbers Map

Finding a house number on a Berlin street can be difficult. This is because Berlin has two completely different house-numbering systems; the horseshoe and the zizgzag.

Some streets in Berlin use the 'horseshoe' numbering system. This means that the first building at one end of the street is given the number 1. Each building on the same side of the street is then given a progressively higher number until the end of the street. At the end of the street you cross over the road and then work back to the beginning of the street giving each house a progressively higher number, again in consecutive order. The result is that the building with the highest house number on the street is opposite the building with the lowest house number,

Many other streets in Berlin however use the 'zigzag' numbering system. These streets have even numbered buildings on one side of the street and odd numbered buildings on the other side of the street.

If you are confused then you should check out Der Tagesspiegel's Berlin House Numbers Map. On this map all of Berlin's streets are colored red or blue to show whether they use the horseshoe or zigzag method of house numbering. If you zoom right in on a street you can see the house numbers on the map - so you can actually observe on the map how both systems work in reality.

Berlin changed to the zigzag house numbering system in 1927. Therefore the blue (zigzag) streets on the map are mostly the newer streets and the red (horseshoe) streets are the older streets. However even before 1927 some streets used the zigzag house numbering system. Therefore all the blue streets on the map are not necessarily the newest streets.