Berlin

The capital of the unified German Empire, Berlin is a bustling city when young Effi Briest and her mother visit to "assemble her trousseau." They stay in the expensive Hôtel du Nord and are taken to fashionable restaurants and cafés at appropriate hours by their chaperon, Cousin Dagobert Briest. They shop in Spinn, Mencke and Goschenhofer, visit the Zoological Garden and the National Gallery, so the future bride can view The Isle of the Blessed.

After years in Kessin, Innstetten is posted to Berlin, and Effi comes ahead to find an apartment. Innstetten specifies that he wants to live between the Tiergarten and the Zoological Garden, so he can hear finches and parrots. Effi finds a suitable new building on Keithstrasse, off Unter den Linden, the main east-west boulevard through Berlin. After Innstetten learns of Effi's adultery in Kessin and divorces her, she settles in...