Not only for taxi drivers — World Toilet Day in Berlin sheds light on the history of the Café Achteck.

As with many growing metropolises of the 19th century, Berlin also once wrestled with hygienic problems. The city's population grew rapidly at the time, but modern water and sewer lines were largely missing. Drainage pits and chamber pots shaped the cityscape, and their contents mostly ended up in the Spree. First efforts to establish public toilets at that time came from the Berlin police, which since 1832 by royal decree was responsible for everything that happened on and under the city's main streets. The then General Police Director Karl Ludwig von Hinckeldey was thus also honored with a mocking verse:

„Oh dear Father Hinckeldey

grant us for our urination

but please leave a corner free”

In 1879 the moment finally arrived: After a design competition, on Weddingplatz and Arminiusplatz (Rathausvorplatz in Moabit) the first Cafés Achteck were erected. The palmette design on the exterior wall was inspired by the painter and architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The octagonal form is the ornate product of the Berlin iron foundries, which with their bridges and stations shaped the cityscape, but also produced ornate machine parts and stove plates. One of these richly decorated stove plates served as the template for the eight cast-iron walls of the Berlin urinal.

Officially the toilets were initially called 'Waidmannslust' because of their green color. But the Berliners quickly gave them their nickname Café Achteck – in reference to their shape and the fact that you can 'get rid of coffee' there.