Meanings
- A thoroughfare in central Berlin, formerly the location of the German Chancellery and Foreign Office.
- historicalmetonymicallyThe German government or Foreign Office.
The immediate effect, however, was that all the ingenious calculations of the Wilhelmstrasse came clattering to the ground like a house of cards.
1911, The Fortnightly Review, volume 96, page 6382 more examples
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.”
1956, Carlile Aylmer Macartney, October Fifteenth: A History of Modern Hungary, 1929–1945, volume 1, page 139The 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.
1974, George B. Leon, Greece and the Great Powers, 1914–1917, page 334
Origin
- GermanWilhelmstraße
- EnglishWilhelmstrasse
Borrowed from German Wilhelmstraße, from the name of Prussian King Frederick William I (Friedrich Wilhelm I.) + Straße (“street”).
More words from German
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Wilhelmstrasse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Wilhelmstrasse
“Wilhelmstrasse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Wilhelmstrasse. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Wilhelmstrasse,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Wilhelmstrasse.
Source: Wilhelmstrasse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.