Wilhelmstrasse

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Wilhelmstraße, from the name of Prussian King Frederick William I (Friedrich Wilhelm I.) + Straße (“street”).

Pronunciation

• (US, learned) IPA^(key): /ˌvɪl.hɛlmˈstɹɑ.sə/
• (US, unlearned) IPA^(key): /ˌwɪl.hɛlmˈstɹɑ.sə/, /ˌwɪl.hɛlmˈstɹɑs/

Proper noun

Wilhelmstrasse

1. A thoroughfare in central Berlin, formerly the location of the German Chancellery and Foreign Office.
2. (metonymically, historical after 1945) The German government or Foreign Office.
   • 1911, The Fortnightly Review, volume 96, page 638:

     The immediate effect, however, was that all the ingenious calculations of the Wilhelmstrasse came clattering to the ground like a house of cards.

   • 1956, Carlile Aylmer Macartney, October Fifteenth: A History of Modern Hungary, 1929–1945, volume 1, page 139:

     As von Neurath once told an Austrian diplomat: “It was the view of the Wilhelmstrasse that as soon as the Reich held Austria, Hungary would eat out of its hand.”

   • 1974, George B. Leon, Greece and the Great Powers, 1914–1917, page 334:

     The Wilhelmstrasse was faced with a serious dilemma over the Greek question, for no easy solution could be found that would satisfy both Athens and Germany’s allies.