Zur letzten Instanz

Wiekhaus (Wall House) on the Old Berlin City Wall in the Kloster District

Waisenstraße is located in the Kloster district of Old Berlin, and the house with numbers 14 to 16 leans against a preserved section of the medieval city wall. Its back wall was once part of this wall, and such buildings are called Wiekhäuser (wall houses); no other such building is preserved in Berlin’s Old Town. The property has been documented since 1561, the street itself was formerly called Stralauer Mauer and was renamed in 1861 after a nearby orphanage. Right next door stands the Parochialkirche, whose carillon from 1715 once gave the establishment the name “Zum Bierstübchen am Glockenspiel” (The Little Beer Room by the Carillon); the former courthouse on today’s Littenstraße is also around the corner, and Nikolaiviertel and Alexanderplatz are within walking distance. Zur letzten Instanz is now spread across three combined houses with two guest rooms for a total of 120 guests, a private room with a large table for twelve people, and a beer garden under old trees with a view of the city wall. Inside, a baroque spiral staircase, an old brick floor, and an approximately two-hundred-year-old tiled stove are preserved.

Weekly Menu and Fixed Classics from the Second Generation Sperling

Drinks have been served here since 1621, when a stableman of the Elector opened a schnapps bar on the ground floor. The house received its current name in 1924 from its landlord, shortly after the courthouse next door opened; legend tells of two farmers who ended their long trial over a beer and made peace as a last resort. After severe war damage, the house was rebuilt and reopened in 1963. Rainer Sperling took over Zur letzten Instanz in 1988; since 2020, it has been run by the second generation, Anja and André Sperling, with André Sperling serving as head chef. The menu changes weekly and consists of two parts. One is modern and adapts to what is currently available, such as mountain cheese dumplings in velouté with panko or beef Sauerbraten with grapes. The other is simply called Our Classics and remains as it is: organic mustard eggs with mashed potatoes, pork belly cabbage rolls, Königsberger Klopse (meatballs) with caper apples for 26 Euros, grilled pork hock with spiced red cabbage, and Berliner style veal liver for 32 Euros. At lunchtime, there is a separate, significantly cheaper menu. Among the guests the house itself mentions are Heinrich Zille, Clara Zetkin, Loriot, and Jacques Chirac.