Named after Nikolai Bersarin (1904–1945), Berlin’s first Soviet city commandant.
The square was laid out under the Hobrecht plan and named Baltenplatz in 1895. In 1947 it was renamed after the Soviet colonel general, who had died in a motorcycle accident in Berlin on 16 June 1945. After controversial debates about his role in the 1990s, the Berlin Senate decided to keep the name.