Near the eastern end, Leipziger Straße traversed , named after Prussian general lieutenant Alexander von Dönhoff (1683–1742), where an obelisk marked the zero point of the mileage on the road to Potsdam. Prime minister Karl August von Hardenberg (1750–1822) had a city palais built here, which from 1848 served as seat of the Prussian Landtag. Around the corner a "Concerthaus" was erected in the 1860s, the concert hall of the Benjamin Bilse orchestra, predecessor of the Berlin Philharmonic. Next to it Oscar Tietz opened his first department store in 1900, financed by his uncle Hermann Tietz ("Hertie"), starting the development of Leipziger Straße into a major shopping street.