Niederkirchnerstraße () is a street in Berlin, Germany and was named after Käthe Niederkirchner. The thoroughfare was known as Prinz-Albrecht-Straße until 1951 but the name was changed by the socialist German government. The street was the location of the SS Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), the headquarters of the Sicherheitspolizei, SD, Einsatzgruppen and Gestapo. The site is now marked by the Topography of Terror memorial and a museum, which includes a permanent exhibition showing the crimes of Nazism. Course The street runs east-west from Wilhelmstraße to Stresemannstraße near Potsdamer Platz, forming the border between the districts of Mitte and Kreuzberg. Niederkirchnerstraße is also the site of the Martin-Gropius-Bau exhibition hall, built in 1881 by Martin Gropius and Heino Schmieden as a Museum of Decorative Arts, and the Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin, from 1899 until 1933 seat of the Preußischer Landtag, the second chamber of the Prussian parliament. On 1 January 1919 the Communist Party of Germany was founded in this building. Since 29 April 1993 it houses the parliament of the Berlin city state. History The street was laid out in 1891 and named for Prince Albrecht of Prussia (1809-1872, the youngest son of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia), who had owned a large house called Prinz-Albrecht-Palais on the corner of this street and the Wilhelmstraße. In 1905 an extension building of the Museum of Decorative Arts was erected adjacent to the Martin-Gropius-Bau on Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8. From May 1933 this building served as the headquarters of the Gestapo created by the order of Hermann Göring, where many political prisoners were tortured and executed. In December 1934, it also housed the headquarters of the Concentration Camps Inspectorate, which oversaw all German concentration camps. It formed the nucleus of the complex of buildings including the neighbouring Hotel Prinz Albrecht on Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 9 and the Prinz-Albrecht-Palais itself, which was taken over by the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) under Reinhard Heydrich in 1934. In September 1939, it developed into a centre for the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). The RHSA, formed in September 1939 by Heinrich Himmler and placed under the command of Heydrich, operated throughout Germany and occupied Europe. Himmler himself operated out of the building from an office on the top floor, thus making #8 Prince Albrecht Street the default headquarters for the entire SS. The buildings, including the first building of the Ethnological Museum of Berlin (at the southern corner with Stresemannstraße), were