Named after Martin Behaim (1459–1507), the geographer behind the oldest surviving globe.
Behaim was a cloth merchant from Nuremberg and a knight of the Kingdom of Portugal. The street was first called Wilhelmstraße, in honour of the German Emperor, and was renamed in 1951. Peter Fechter, shot dead in 1962 while trying to escape to West Berlin, lived at no. 11; a plaque has recalled him since 2014.