neighbourhood. In 1892 the street was extended to Hirtenstraße near modern Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. During the Nazi era, demolition of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Brücke began in March 1939 to make room for the Welthauptstadt Germania plans developed by Albert Speer; nevertheless, works ceased shortly after the outbreak of World War II in September. Most of the buildings on Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße were largely damaged and several lost completely in the British and American air raids on the city between 1943 and 1945. During the final Battle of Berlin in April 1945, German Wehrmacht troops blew up the remnants of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Brücke in an attempt to hold back the Red Army advance. After the war, the street became part of the Soviet-occupied sector of Berlin. The Soviet Military Administration had it renamed Liebknechtstraße in 1947 for Karl Liebknecht, co-founder of the German Communist Party. Liebknecht had his lawyer's office nearby and during the German Revolution of 1918–19 had proclaimed a "Free Socialist Republic" at the City Palace on 9 November 1918, shortly before he was murdered by Freikorps paramilitaries. The bridge to Spree Island was rebuilt in a simple form in 1949/50 and equally named Liebknecht Bridge. However, the lost buildings were only replaced in the 1960s when the East German Socialist Unity Party and the Council of Ministers decided to rebuild the area to fit the government's visions of a modern socialist city. The new broad Karl-Liebknecht-Straße started on Spree Island at the Marx-Engels-Platz, between Berlin Cathedral and the Palace of the Republic inaugurated in 1976. On the other side of the Liebknecht Bridge, large Plattenbau apartment blocks were built along the street, while the right side became a large open green, stretching from the Marx-Engels-Forum to the foot of the Fernsehturm (TV tower). Instead of turning north at St. Mary's Church, the new Karl-Liebknecht-Straße, finished in 1969, now goes straight ahead, bypassing Alexanderplatz to meet the arterial road Prenzlauer Allee at the site of the former city gate (Prenzlauer Tor). The former northeastern section of the street, beyond the church, is today known as Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße - named after Rosa Luxemburg, another co-founder of the Communist Party who was likewise killed in 1919. Unlike its surroundings, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße has not changed its look too much since the German reunification in 1990. However, the former Palasthotel near the Liebknecht Bridge has been demolished in 2001 and replaced by the large DomAquarée hotel and office building complex, comprising the