This painting by Friedrich Kaiser shows construction on the Grenadierstraße, which was part of the building boom that transformed Berlin and many other German cities in the early 1870s. The “Founding Era” [Gründerzeit] from 1871 to 1873 was marked by strong economic growth but also unsustainable speculation, both of which were fueled by the French war indemnity paid to Germany in these years. Greater internal migration also resulted from liberalized laws of domicile.