Oranienburger Straße, located in the center of Berlin in the Mitte district north of the river Spree, stretches from Friedrichstraße to Hackescher Markt, intersecting with Große Hamburger Straße to the southeast.

During the early 19th and 20th centuries, this thoroughfare was the main meeting point for the Jewish population in Berlin. Today, numerous memorials commemorate those who lived on this street, including schools, orphanages, family homes and Jewish cemeteries. However, during the Nazi regime, all these institutions were closed and most of the Jewish residents were deported to extermination camps in Poland.

One of the most prominent buildings on Oranienburger Straße is the New Synagogue (Neue Synagoge), opened in 1866 as the largest synagogue in Berlin at that time. Although it survived the Kristallnacht of 1938 thanks to the actions of Wilhelm Krützfeld, a local police commander, the building was badly damaged by Allied bombing in 1943. Subsequently, much of the ruins were demolished by the GDR authorities. The facade of the synagogue was restored and reopened in 1995 as a museum and Jewish community center.

As for public transportation, the tramway on Oranienburger Strasse was built between 1868 and 1877, and has been in continuous use ever since, except for a period between 1945 and 1951. At the intersection with Tucholskystraße is the Oranienburger Straße S-Bahn station, created in May 1936 as part of the opening of the North-South S-Bahn Tunnel. This station was closed from August 13, 1961 until July 2, 1990, being the first of the closed stations to open to the public after German reunification.